CLARKSBURG – The Class AAAA No. 12 Buckhannon-Upshur Buccaneers used a 16-0 third quarter run to pull away from a pesky Robert C. Byrd Eagles team for a 61-47 victory Wednesday night in Big 10 Conference action.

The Bucs were nursing a 25-24 advantage early in the third quarter but kept the Eagles off the scoreboard for over five minutes while scoring 16 unanswered points for a 41-24 lead.

The Eagles were never able to pull closer than 11 points the rest of the way.

Buckhannon-Upshur was playing their first game in 10 days due to inclement weather wiping out some contests.

“We were watching it snow like everyone else, so it felt good to get back on the court,” remarked Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Jason Westfall. “That said, all wins are good, but as a coach I felt like we were sloppy at moments. We had to make some adjustments with our offense because of how they played us, and we got a little bit out of rhythm. Robert C. Byrd and coach Basil had a great game plan lined up for. All the respect to their program, but I think in the end, they are a young team, and we used our experience to pull away from them.”

The Bucs were down early 9-6 shaking off some rust but a 6-0 run behind a lay-up from Carter Zuliani, two free throws from Ian Strader and a putback from Jaden Westfall treated the Bucs to a 12-9 advantage and they would never trail again in the game.

A short jumper from Malaki Williams ended the first quarter giving the Bucs a 14-11 lead.

B-U started the second quarter on a mini 4-0 run capped off by a dunk from Zuliani that upped the lead to 18-11.

A short jumper from Jaden Westfall kept the Bucs up by seven, at 25-18, but Robert C. Byrd’s Manny Holmes connected on a trey to make it a 25-21 contest at the break.

Robert C. Byrd’s Camryn Newsuan started the third quarter with a three-pointer making it a 25-24 score before the Bucs went on their 16-0 run.

Buckhannon-Upshur led by 15, at 43-28, going into the final eight minutes of action.

The Eagles cut the B-U lead down to 11, at 51-40, but Strader put in consecutive baskets putting B-U back up by 15, at 55-40, with 1:19 remaining.

Robert C. Byrd never got closer than 12 points the rest of the way.

Newsuan led Robert C. Byrd with 15 points in the loss.

They dropped to 3-6 overall and 1-5 in the Big 10 Conference.

Strader and Zuliani both had 14 points for the Bucs in the win while Jerin Westfall added 13 points.

The Bucs shot 49 percent for the game, making good on 23 of their 47 field goal attempts and held a 49-30 rebounding margin.

Jaden Westfall pulled down a game-high nine rebounds for the Bucs.

B-U improved to 8-3 overall and 4-3 in the Big 10 Conference.

They will be back in action Friday visiting the University Hawks in a 7:30 p.m. non-conference battle.

“We want to be respected around the state,  but we have to win to do that,” concluded Westfall. “We accomplished that against Robert C. Byrd, but we want such much more.”