TORONTO — The Toronto boys’ basketball team slowly built its lead up against Jefferson County foe Buckeye Local.

The Red Knights led by just one with under 20 seconds left in the first half before a big third quarter enabled them to build a double-digit advantage against the Panthers.

After leading by just three points at halftime, the Red Knights outscored the Panthers by 11 in the third and eight in the fourth on their way to a 67-45 victory Thursday night inside the George J. Kunzler Memorial Gymnasium.

“We wanted to play defense,” Toronto (13-3) head coach Sean Tucker said asked what changed for his team in the third quarter “We gave up 26 points in the first half. They scored 15 points in the first quarter. Give credit to Buckeye Local. They came out and played hard. We traded points with them. They scored, and then we scored.

“We were not playing defense. I’m not sure why we came out flat. We had two good days of preparation for this game. We told the guys you can’t look at records at this point. Buckeye Local has been playing extremely well. There are some games they probably feel they should have won. Stevie is doing a great job with them.

“We came out played well in the second half. There were no adjustments that needed to be made. We reiterated to them who we are defensively, and we proved who we were defensively. We outscored them 15-4 in the third. We showed them who we are, and that was the turning point in the game. We came out and played well in the second half.”

The Red Knights led by as man as 24 points in the fourth.

“It was just how the game was going,” Tucker said about his team scoring a lot of its points inside the paint. “We wanted to spread them out. In the first half, we did not do a good job of spacing. In the second half, we did a better job of spacing them out, and we were able to get downhill. We were not hitting shots from the outside. We told the guys you are going to have some nights when your offensive game is off and you are going to have to break down the defense. We had to explain things to some guys at halftime who were not playing like themselves. We came out in the second half, and it was like a light switch was turned on. We were able to get downhill, we were able to get to the rim and we were able to get to the free-throw line. That is our strength. That is our identity. We showed that in the second half after losing that in the first half.”

Thanks to the big third quarter, the boys in white took a 44-30 lead into the fourth. The hosts led 67-43 in the fourth before the visitors netted the final basket in the closing seconds of the game.

“We scouted them,” Tucker said. “Buckeye has some really good shooters. They can really shoot the ball from the outside. They shoot the ball more from the outside than probably anyone else on our schedule. We wanted to take that away. We wanted to discourage that.

“No. 15 (Jusante Wright) inside does a great job of getting to the rim. We wanted to take that away. We wanted to collapse on 15. We made an adjustment. We came out in the second half and played better defense. As a coach, that is all you can ask.”

Earlier this season, Buckeye Local hit eight 3-pointers in an overtime loss to Indian Creek. Thursday night, the Panthers hit just two shots from beyond the arc in their loss to the Red Knights.

“Continued prayers for Coach Dunlevy,” Tucker said.

Colt Joynson collected a game-high 21 points to lead the way offensively for the boys from the Gem City as Brody Winters tallied 13 and Brady Fair finished with nine.

Matt Morris contributed a team-high 11 points to lead the way for Buckeye Local, Haden Wilhelm delivered 10 and Kolton Carothers recorded eight. Carothers hit both of the Panthers’ 3-pointers.

“We told our guys this is not the same Buckeye Local team we played last year,” Tucker said. “They are not going to turn the ball over as much. They are very disciplined with the basketball. They handle the ball well. One thing we wanted to do today is we wanted to speed them up to as fast as we play. In the first half, we allowed them to play at their pace, and they were able to take care of the basketball.

The two teams traded points in the first quarter as both teams had little difficulty in scoring. Toronto led by as many as three points in the quarter before leading 16-15 at the end of it.

The Red Knights continued to the majority of its damage from inside the paint in the second as they took a 23-17 lead with 5:25 remaining to be played in the first half.

Buckeye Local bounced back and pulled to within one point before a pair of foul shots with 19.2 seconds left in the half enabled Toronto to take a 29-26 lead into the locker room.

Toronto is scheduled to play rival Edison today at home. The JV game is set to start at 5:30 p.m. The Red Knights defeated the Wildcats, 68-47, Dec. 12 on the road.

“It is a big rivalry game,” Tucker said. “We told our guys we can’t look ahead. We have to take things one game at a time. This is an important part of our schedule. We had two big road wins Friday and Monday. We had a good win tonight, but we have to get right back after it. Edison plays very hard. It’s going to be a good atmosphere. We’re going to have to be ready.”

Buckeye Local is slated to play Buckeye 8 rival Bellaire tonight. The JV game will start at 5:30 p.m.

Toronto 67, Buckeye Local 45

Buckeye Local 15 11 4 15 – 45

Toronto 16 13 15 23 – 67

BUCKEYE LOCAL (4-12): Wilhelm 4 2-3 10, Kirkland 0 2-4 2, Walker 3 0-0 6, Carothers 3 0-0 8, Worwa 0 0-0 0, Kinyo 0 0-0 0, Morris 4 3-3 11, Wright 2 0-2 4, Eddy 1 0-0 2, Fillipovich 0 0-0 0, Beranek 1 0-0 2, Palmer 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 18 7-12 45.

TORONTO (13-3): Anderson 0 0-0 0, Grimes 2 1-2 6, Joynson 10 1-1 21, Bodnar 0 0-0 0, Winters 6 1-1 13, Fair 4 1-2 9, Gibson 1 0-1 2, Henry 1 0-0 2, Rebich 1 0-0 2, Wertjes 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 29 8-11 67.

3-POINTERS: Buckeye Local 2 (Carothers); Toronto 1 (Grimes)