By By TOM NYHUIS / Niles Daily Star
BUCHANAN – Buchanan varsity basketball coach Reid McBeth has been telling his team since the start of the season that it's going to take four full quarters of execution in order to win a game.
Tuesday night, the Bucks had that execution on their home court and came away with a 60-56 non-league win over Marcellus to improve to 4-5 on the season.
It was the leadership of sophomore guard Derek Anglero in the first half that sparked the Bucks to a 33-22 lead at the break. Anglero scored 18 of his game high with 23 points in the opening half. Anglero led the Bucks 18 points in the second quarter, knocking down one of his two 3-point baskets that broke open a one-point lead.
Freshman Clinton Orr pumped in nine of his 15 points in the first half.
"Derek is a great shooter," McBeth said "I knew sometime down the line he was going to break out. Tonight he did a lot better job taking the ball to the basket. We tried to spread the offense out a little more and give our guards a little bit more room to work and get inside and I thought that benefited us. Clinton also did a good job in the first half of taking the ball to the basket and that created some mismatches when you have a guy strong enough to play inside and quick enough to take people off the dribble that really helped."
Hitting the boards was also key for the Bucks in grabbing the 11 point first half lead. Buchanan crashed the boards in the second quarter pulling in nine, compared to the Wildcats' two.
Buddy Williams hauled in 10 caroms and had two blocked shots to lead the Bucks, with Orr collecting nine. Overall Buchanan had a 30-25 rebounding edge in the game.
"With Marquis sitting on the bench that first half we had a lot of kids that really stepped up and played hard. I was proud of every individual that went in there. We had big contributions in there from Evan (Cauffman), Buddy (Williams) Szabi (Kerekes), Jon (Young) and Matt (Sebasty) all those guys went in and did positive things for us. Our kids came out focused for four quarters and I think that was the first time all year, so I was really proud of their effort," McBeth said
Marcellus rallied in the third quarter knocking down some big shots over the Buchanan defense. The Wildcats used a 16-6 run to start the second half to take over the lead, 40-39 with just over three minutes to play in the quarter. It was at the four minute mark of the quarter that Marquis Hall saw his first minutes of the game. Hall came in and scored five points in the final three minutes to take back the lead, a lead that the Bucks wouldn't let go of the rest of the way. Buchanan went into the final eight minutes of play with a 46-44 lead.
The Wildcats cut the lead to one, 57-56, with :26 to play. Buchanan's Brad Burns pulled down a long defensive rebound and got the ball out to Orr, for his fifth assist of the night, who laid in the final bucket of the game with six seconds left in the game and the Buck win.
Marcellus captured a 51-48 overtime win in junior varsity action. Richie Reed and Daniel Blackwell each scored 12 for Buchanan. Chris Reed finished with 12 to lead Marcellus.
The Buchanan freshmen team scored a 55-28 win with Phillip Donald and Justin Parm each scoring 11 points.
Buchanan … 60
Marcellus … 56
BUCHANAN (60) – Derek Anglero 9 3-6 23, Avery Brown 3 0-0 7, Jon Young 0 0-0 0, Clinton Orr 7 0-2 15, Matt Sebasty 0 0-0 0, Brad Burns 2 0-0 4, Marquis Hall 3 3-4 9, Szabi Kerekes 0 0-0 0, Evan Cauffman 0 0-0 0, Buddy Williams 1 0-0 2, Totals 25 6-12 60.
MARCELLUS (56) – Skyler Perry 0 0-0 0, Tyler Lanning 5 1-3 11, Andrew Nofsinger 5 4-7 18, Ian Shelly 4 0-0 9, Bryant Hutson 0 0-0 0, Derek Turtle 7 0-0 14, Caleb Reuter 0 0-1 0, Ryan Williams 2 0-0 4, Totals 23 5-11 56.
Buchanan 15 33 46 – 60
Marcellus 14 22 44 – 56
Fouls (fouled out)- Buchanan 15 (none), Marcellus 17 (Shelly), 3-point shooting- Buchanan 4 (Anglero 2, Brown, Orr), Marcellus 5 (Nofsinger 4, Shelly)