Boys basketball: Byron’s fast start sinks Dixon at Lancaster Gym

DIXON – As slow starts go, Dixon senior Grant Boss can’t recall a slower one in his career with the Dukes than Tuesday night against Byron.

The Tigers jumped out to a quick double-digit lead lead and held the Dukes scoreless fo the first 7:29 on their way to a 58-36 victory in their Big Northern Conference game at Lancaster Gym.

Dixon (16-9, 3-2 BNC) turned the ball over six times in the first quarter, and shot 1 for 12 for the period as it struggled against an athletic Byron team and its 1-3-1 half-court zone defense.

“We’ve come out before where we haven’t been playing our best, but this is by far the absolute worst we’ve ever come out in a game. We went down 15-0, and that’s just ridiculous,” Boss said, shaking his head. “We just need to be better at adjusting, I feel like. We came into this game not really fully expecting what their 1-3-1 defense would do to us, and we just could not take care of the ball, get it to the spots that were open, just the little things that we needed to do tonight.”

While Byron (16-6, 4-1) was shutting down the Dukes’ offense, it was also converting on the other end. Nick Kesler and Ryan Tucker hit 3-pointers 49 seconds apart, then Tucker hit another one 37 seconds after that to give the Tigers an 11-0 lead just 4:04 into the game.

A Caden Considine fast-break layup off a Tucker assist and then another runout layup by Tucker on a long rebound that was tapped into the backcourt made it 15-0 Byron with 1:09 left in the first quarter.

“Defense leads to offense, and it’s really key to have guys that can play that zone. We get those fast breaks, get those big shots. That’s how we get our scoring stretches,” Tucker said. “Anybody can play any position on our squad, and it just helps that we’re all athletic and make plays anywhere.”

Boss scored a putback with 31 seconds left in the first to get Dixon on the board, then his 3-pointer answered Tucker’s 3 off a loose ball to make it 19-5 less than two minutes into the second quarter.

But baskets inside by Carson Buser and Considine and two buckets from Cason Newton off the bench pushed the Tigers’ lead to 27-5 with 2:41 remaining before halftime.

“Our ball movement was really key today. We got open shots, got good ‘one mores,’ nobody was selfish,” Tucker said about his teammates passing up good shots for great ones. “Our IQ is really helpful, because we know where we want to catch it outside, and that’s how we score. That’s how we win as a team.”

Dixon finally started figuring things out, as Mason Weigle scored on a loose ball before Cullen Shaner nailed a 3 off a pass from Austin Hicks. But Tucker assisted on Kesler’s second 3 of the first half in the final minute, and the Dukes trailed 32-12 at the break.

“We missed shots and they made shots, we’d turn it over and they’d convert,” Dixon coach Chris Harmann said. “That’s a very solid team, and their length gave us a little problem up top. We’ve seen some length before, but we just didn’t take care of the ball.”

The teams traded baskets throughout the third quarter. Weigle opened the fourth with a stellar hustle play, leaping to save a ball before it landed out of bounds for an offensive rebound and flipping a pass back to Bryce Feit under the basket for a layup to get within 44-28 with 7:26 left.

But Byron went on a 12-0 run, with baskets from Tucker, Considine, Kesler and Newton, as well as four free throws, to double-up Dixon 56-28 with 3:39 remaining.

“I thought we shared it pretty well against what they were trying to do defensively. Ryan Tucker got hot, Nick Kesler hit a couple big shots for us, Caden Considine also was moving it around,” Byron coach Matt Huels said. “I think we’re at our best when we’re dictating offensively and defensively, and we’re not just trying to force things.”

After the teams emptied their benches, Matt Warkins scored inside and Jaxson Gaither and Boss buried 3s as Dixon closed the final 3:17 with an 8-2 run.

Tucker led the Tigers with 21 points, seven rebounds and four steals, and he also dished three assists. Kesler finished with 14 points and two steals, Considine had six points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals, and Newton scored six points for Byron.

The fast start is something Huels and his coaching staff have been looking for, and he was pleased with the effort and intensity on both ends of the court from the opening tip.

“We’ve been struggling, actually, starting games and coming out of halftime. We’ve been doing different things at practice where we’ll simulate a pregame speech and then come out and scrimmage each other for four minutes. Maybe some of that’s paying off, or maybe it’s the guys saying, ‘Hey, we’re tired of just talking about fast starts,’ and we came out and did that,” Huels said. “We got a couple stops defensively, then we were going down and getting what we call ‘build-up situations’ – 2-on-1s, 3-on-2s – and we converted.”

Boss led Dixon with eight points and four rebounds, while Shaner, Weigle and Darius Harrington scored five points each; Harrington also nabbed two steals. Wyatt Wetzell added four points and three steals, and Gaither chipped in three points, a team-high two assists and two steals for the Dukes, who will try to learn from the loss and bounce back quickly.

“Coach told us to look at the film and write down things that you could’ve done better that you did well. I think that itself will be the wake-up call, just watching the film,” Boss said. “We just have to come to practice tomorrow ready to work.”

“We told our guys that game’s not indicative of who we are. We’ll get back to the grindstone tomorrow,” Harmann added. “Two days and we’re back at G-K, another conference game. It’s going to be another tough one on the road, and we’ll be ready for it.”