Bellevue finishes 2-0 on second day of Midwest Live

SANDUSKY — The challenges were upfront. There were no easy games or easy teams at Midwest Live at Cedar Point Sports Center. Bellevue faced that task head-on, defeating Fairland 45-34 and Hillard Darby 30-25 on Saturday. The wins came after splitting two games Friday against Wheeling Central (WV) and Bellbrook. "I thought we answered the way I said," Lady Red coach Kory Santoro said. "We'd either get better or we'd stay the same. I think we got better today. I thought we were a lot more patience offensively and defensively. We weren't gambling as much and took better care of the ball. "It was good to see them come back, salvage the weekend and go 3-1." In the opener against Fairland, a Div. V state semifinalist this past season, Bellevue never trailed. The Lady Red led 6-0 early and went up 9-3 on Ellie Freitag's 3. Ahead 24-17 in the second half, Mazie Gracemyer split two free throws, Gracemyer scored and a bucket from Freitag made it 29-17. "We pride ourselves on our defense," Santoro said. "That's something you can bring every night, no matter what. That will continue. These girls know how to play defense. They know that's what we want." Bellevue was a little slow out of the gate against Div. I Hillard Darby. The Lady Red trailed 4-0 and 8-6 before going up 18-10 on two scores from Ava Jakubcin-Theis and a 3 from Freitag. Ahead 20-14 at halftime, Bellevue grinded away in the second half. The Lady Red surged ahead 28-20 and cruised from there. "I got to watch them last year because my daughter (Carly) played them in their league," Santoro said. "We knew a little bit about them. I thought we came out and we were poised. That starts with our two All-Ohio guards, Ellie Freitag and Ava Jakubcin-Theis. We go as they go and I thought they did a good job controlling the game today." One of the biggest questions Bellevue will answer before the season begins is the replacement of 6-foot-3 Kaitlyn Turinsky, who graduated and is getting ready for collegiate basketball at Div. I Youngstown State. Along with Freitag, Jakubcin-Theis, Gracemyer and Carrington Savage, Lexi Easterwood started all four games this weekend for Bellevue. "It's still a work in progress over the summer, but Lexi is a very good defender for us," Santoro said. "Her game is going to continue to grow. We're still trying to find our top nine girls. We're not there yet, but we have the rest of the summer and fall to put that together." Like it did Friday, Margaretta finished the day 1-1. The Polar Bears defeated Tusky Valley 34-31 before a 47-42 overtime loss to Grandville. Margaretta coach Ray Neill liked seeing both games come down to the final seconds. "It's good to see who can make a play on either end of the court," Neill said. "Who's comfortable in it? Who's not going to shy away? Who can step up and make a play, whether offensively or defensively? I'm happy with all of our girls." Facing Grandville, the Polar Bears trailed by two in the waning seconds of regulation. Ashlyn Kingsborough drove to the hole and scored to send the game to overtime. There, Margaretta couldn't covert and didn't score. "All eight girls who were here today competed hard," Neill said. "They all contributed. All of the new faces that are playing, we're very limited in what we can actually run out of the playbook. I'm not worried about whether we're walking out of here with wins or losses. "The wins are a good thing, but if we're getting better and starting to work on those little things we're asking each girl to be cognitive of, it's an improving day." The Polar Bears are looking forward to having junior Thea Wyensinger for the entire season. She was only able to play the first half of the season as a sophomore due to OHSAA transfer rules. Of the course of four games at Midwest Live, Wybensinger split the majority of the ball-handling duties with Renna Keller and Ellaynah Schaefer. "We're excited about that," Neill said. "We have multiple girls that have been point guard over the course of their playing career. We have to figure out who is going to run the point and who is going to fill in those other spots. "We have some girls that are having to figure out what it's like to play in the middle and play where they're at a height disadvantage." Norwalk also went 1-1 on Saturday, defeating Sheridan 27-24 in overtime before a 42-18 loss to Cincinnati Sycamore. After leading Sycamore early, Norwalk struggled from there, falling to the Division I Aviators. "I think it was a conditioning issue," Truckers coach Kyle Brubaker said. "We need to get in game shape. I think that really showed up today in the second game and I think it showed up in a couple second halves that we played here. As our conditioning goes, our ability to finish through contact goes. "They were very physically and made us play the full court." Emmie Leber scored twice early for an 8-4 lead, but the Truckers didn't score the rest of the half and trailed 14-8 at the break. Things went from bad to worse in the second half as Sycamore opened a 27-10 advantage. Norwalk only tallied one bucket after Leber's pair as the Aviators pulled away. "I think we built our whole summer on playing the toughest competition," Brubaker said. "We feel like 90 percent of the teams we played were a top three or four team on our schedule. It definitely should give us confidence knowing that when we're at our best, we can compete with teams. "We beat a lot of good programs this summer." The Truckers opened the day with a grind-it-out 27-24 overtime win over Sheridan. Much like later on against Sycamore, Norwalk struggled offensively. The Truckers trailed 11-7 at halftime. Norwalk took a brief 15-14 lead on a tally by Libby Lark, but Sheridan responded and led 23-19. Grace Knight scored for the Truckers and a 3-pointer from Mackenzie Jerousek tied the game at 24 after regulation. Norwalk turned the ball over on its first possession of overtime, but got a stop defensively. That allowed Alyssa Gruhlke to score the go-ahead bucket. After a stop, she split two free throws to seal the win. "This group has a knack for making big plays," Brubaker said. "They just do. We've seen it time and time again. That was another example of us doing that. But, it also tells us the importance of our defense. If our offense is going to be a little stagnant, our defense has to keep us in it. "We had no business winning that game. We were atrocious from the free throw line." Jerousek enrolled at Norwalk last season from Wellington, but had to sit out the remainder of the season due to OHSAA transfer rules. Now, the senior will factor into the Truckers' team in a big way this season. "She's not new to us, but new to us on the floor," Brubaker said. "She can score and she has a really high IQ. She has good leadership skills. She really is a three-level scorer. She's probably the No. 1 player I'm going to yell at to shoot the ball. We're really excited to have her and see what she can do for us." Norwalk has played this summer without sophomore star Jo Jackson, who is out with an injury. She'll be back as the Truckers chase the Lake Division championship in the newly formed Northern Ohio Conference. "Everything we've done this summer offensively and defensively, we've felt like fits her really, really well," Brubaker said. "It's a bit of a tease because we feel like we had a good summer overall, but when you add her, that's quite a difference on both ends of the floor. "All summer long, we've been thinking about what it looks like when she's healthy."