Bucks bop Tigers

By JON KLEINKNECHT

Inquirer Sports Editor

sports@galioninquirer.com

The vis­it­ing Buck­eye Cen­tral Bucks defeated the Galion Tigers 58–48 last Sat­ur­day night in boys’ var­sity bas­ket­ball play at the high school.

By win­ning, the vis­i­tors improved their record to 6–6. The loss was the sixth in their most seven recent games for the locals who descend to 3–7.

Galion had a 6–3 lead a lit­tle more than a minute-and-a-half into the game.

But, led by hot-shooting junior guard Cade Kaple — who scored 11 points in the open­ing period — the Bucks fin­ished the frame with a 17–9 run to go on top 20–15.

By half­time, the Orange-and-Blue were star­ing at a 12-point deficit — 32–20 — as sopho­more Austin Wurm, who let­tered as a fresh­man, blis­tered the Tigers for a trio of field goals inside the paint and added a 15-toot jumper for good mea­sure in the sec­ond stanza.

The third period belonged to the Tigers.

Ridge Durbin and Austin Prosser com­bined for all the points as they bested the Bucks 11–8, trim­ming the gap to 44–35 going into the last period. Durbin net­ted 7 of the hosts tal­lies with a 3-pointer, a layup off a steal, and a bucket in the paint.

The final eight min­utes were claimed by the vis­i­tors, 14–13, with Wurm gar­ner­ing half of their points.

From begin­ning to end, Buck­eye Cen­tral out-hustled Galion. It’s been an afflic­tion the Orange-and-Blue have been plagued with most of the season.

“I asked Loy (Buck­eye Cen­tral head coach Phil Loy) how he gets his kids to play so hard and he said, ‘It’s just our kids,’ an angry Galion head coach Ed Rich quipped after the loss. “I really wish I could say the same about ours.”

Whether it be rebound­ing or scram­bling for loose balls, the Bucks came out on top most of the time. They out-rebounded the Tigers 31–22, and time after time came away with the loose ball by div­ing on the floor.

“We’ve been say­ing all along that we have got to win the 50–50 bat­tle,” stated Rich. “Tonight we didn’t even win it once,” he added while slowly shak­ing his head in disgust.

Sta­tis­tics showed the Tigers mak­ing 19-of-45 field goal attempts (42 per­cent) and 5-of-10 free throws (50 per­cent). They entered the con­test shoot­ing just 51 per­cent at the foul line. The win­ners net­ted 25-of-42 floor shots (59 per­cent) and only 6-of-14 tosses (43 per­cent). Each team turned the ball over 14 times.

Prosser popped in 18 points and Durbin, 17, for the hosts. Anto­nio Bur­ket added 4, Tony Kirk, 3; while Hous­ton Blair, Lucas Bohach and Austin Chap­lin added 2 apiece.

Wurm scored 19 and Kaple, 16, for Buck­eye Central.

It was a clean sweep on the night for the vis­i­tors as they won the junior var­sity game by a 56–38 score. Colton Moore gar­nered 11 points for the locals.

Galion plays host to Bucyrus on Friday.

Posted by Jon Kleinknecht on Jan 15 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.