Knights pull away for season sweep of Panthers
TORONTO — A spurt turned into a big run tha turned into a big victory for the Toronto boys’ basketball team.
Trailing Buckeye Local by two in the first quarter, Toronto tallied 26 of the next 28 points to build a 22-point advantage in the second, and the Red Knights did not look back en route to a 67-33 victory via mercy rule in the opening game of a boys and girls doubleheader Monday afternoon inside the George J. Kunzler Memorial Gymnasium.
“Our pressure,” Toronto (10-3) head coach Sean Tucker said asked what led to his team’s big run in the first half. “We told them we have to get back to being hungry not defensively but offensively. We have been playing good defense but our offense needed a spark.
“We told our bench in our last three games, our bench has scored in single digits. We challenged our bench. We told them we needed more from our bench if we were going to be successful. We are not going to beat too many teams scoring in the 40s. We needed to get back to up where we were. Our bench scored six or eight points in the first half and that was huge.
“We were able to disrupt them in the first half. We were able to get out in transition, and that is our strong suit. It was good to see us get back to what we were doing.”
After a solid first quarter, the Panthers were not able to sustain their level of play the rest of the way.
“That has been the story all season,” Buckeye Local (1-12) head coach Chris Heaton said. “We played a good quarter, and then their pressure took over. We turned it over quite a bit. We got into foul trouble with our guards. We had to put some of younger kids in, and that was it.
“They are a good team. Their record shows that.”
Toronto led early, but a 3-pointer gave Buckeye Local a 12-10 lead, however, the Red Knights tallied the final two baskets of the quarter to give the boys from the Gem City a 14-12 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Toronto’s run continued in the second as the hosts scored the first seven points of the second quarter to build a 21-12 advantage. After the Panthers responded with a basket, the victors scored the next seven points to double up the visitors, 28-14, with 4:40 remaining to be played before halftime.
The boys in white ended up outscoring the boys in white, 24-4, in the second as Toronto took a 38-16 lead into the locker room at halftime.
“They’re big,” Tucker said about the Panthers. “They’re very big and lengthy. They are very long. They cover a lot of ground in the 2-3. You watch and see what teams do to Syracuse with how long they are.
“They did a good job of slowing us down in the first quarter. They were in good position in the first quarter. They were in a 2-3, and they were able to slow us down a lot in the first quarter. We adjusted in the second. Our kids did a good job adjusting. They were able to penetrate and score.”
The Red Knights outscored the Panthers, 26-11, in the third to extend their advantage to 64-27 entering the fourth. Buckeye Local outscored Toronto, 6-3, in the fourth to account for the final score.
The running clock came into play in the second half.
The victory enabled the Red-and-White to sweep the season series between the two Jefferson County teams.
“It was mainly the same stuff,” Heaton said asked if either team did anything different in this meeting as compared to the first one. “We knew they were going to trap. We knew they wanted to speed us up. They hurt us with their pressure.
“They did a good job with their backside rotations, and they were able to get some steals. They got steals, and they were able to convert on the other end. They were able to finish.”
Four players produced double digits in points for Toronto. Individually, Brady Fair finished with a game-high 25 points to lead the way offensively. Fair hit six of the Red Knights’ eight 3-pointers in the game.
Also for the Red Knights, Landon Grimes delivered 11 points, while Colt Joynson and Austin Buchanan each collected 10.
Two players scored in double figures for the boys in blue. Individually, Isaac Hess scored a team-high 12 points, while Mason Griffin finished with 10.
The victory snapped Toronto’s two-game losing streak.
“We suffered those two losses, but we lost to two teams that are good,” Tucker said. “We lost those two games, but we learned from them. When you do something wrong, you learn from what you did wrong. We did not want to score, or we were not as aggressive in terms of scoring as we had been and that hurt us.
“We did some different things in practice. We challenged the guys. The guys who came off the bench provided energy on offense, and that was big for us.”
The Toronto girls defeated Bridgeport, 58-24, in the nightcap.
Toronto is scheduled to play Shenandoah in a varsity-only game at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday as part of a boys and girls doubleheader. The Toronto girls are slated to play Wellsville at 7 p.m. in another varsity-only game.
Buckeye Local is set to play Harrison Central Thursday at home.
Toronto 67 Buckeye Local 33
Buckeye Local 12 4 11 6 – 33
Toronto 14 24 26 3 – 67
BUCKEYE LOCAL (1-12): Wilhelm 1 0-0 2, Griffin 4 0-0 10, Littlejohn 1 0-0 2, Walker 0 0-0 0, Carothers 0 0-0 0, Worwa 0 0-0 0, Kinyo 0 4-4 4, Wright 0 0-0 0, Bennington 0 0-0 0, Eastham 0 1-2 1, Hess 6 0-2 12. TOTALS: 13 5-8 33.
TORONTO (10-3): Filby 1 0-0 2, Grimes 3 4-4 11, Joynson 3 4-6 10, Bodnar 0 0-0 0, Buchanan 4 1-2 10, Fair 9 1-2 25, Henry 2 0-2 4, Dickinson 2 0-0 4, Heckathorn 0 1-2 1, Anderson 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 24 11-18 67.
3-POINTERS: Buckeye Local 2 (Griffin 2); Toronto 8 (Fair 6, Grimes, Buchanan)