Lady Red bridge halftime with 20-0 run

BELLEVUE — Bellevue has instilled a focus in its program for many years now — control the last four minutes of the first half and the first four minutes of the second half. Consider that mission accomplished on Monday night. The Lady Red scored the final seven points before the break and the first 13 points after it, an extended 20-0 run that asserted their dominance. "They value those four minutes more than anything," Bellevue coach Kory Santoro said. "The last two games we've played, we've come out of halftime and played our best basketball." The final reflected just how good Bellevue (5-2) was in that stretch, 60-29 over Van Buren (3-6). Hailey Rees, who scored seven of the final 10 of the first half, finished with 17 points, five rebounds, five steals, three assists and three blocks. Audrey Turner scored 11 of her 14 points in the third quarter. Kaitlyn Turinsky finished with 14 points to go with seven rebounds and four blocks. "We just have good communication and relationships with our teammates," Turner said. "That helps us just see each other on the court." Before Rees took over the end of the first half, Bellevue had already started to pull away thanks to freshman Carrington 'CJ' Savage. In a baseline offensive spot against Van Buren's 2-3 zone, she moved her way to three open jumpers. Savage nailed a 3 from each corner and a midrange jumper from the right baseline in her second-quarter spurt off the bench. "She's put together two solid games for us," Santoro said. "We got the ball to her, and she's been shy about shooting it. But the last two weeks, she's starting to feel comfortable with varsity basketball." Rees also started to find openings in that zone, something Bellevue has struggled against a bit in the past but has the shooters to pick apart this season. "We've been working a lot on playing against zone and hitting our shots," Rees said. "The quicker we move the ball the better shots we can get." A Rees foul shot sent it to the break, and her and-1 started the dominant third quarter. Turner, who assisted on the Rees make to start the second half, then drilled a 3, assisted on a Brooke Brown 3, hit a floater, grabbed a steal and nailed a 3 from the top of the key. "Audrey really has had a great year so far shooting the ball," Santoro said. "She didn't have the greatest first half, but she knew she had to get it going." After a short Van Buren surge, Turner drilled one more 3 for an 11-point third quarter. Bellevue ended up with a 22-7 edge in those eight minutes. "We ended the second quarter really well," Turner said. "We came into the locker room, had a conversation about what we saw was open... We came into the second half just firing away." The Lady Red activated the running clock on a Turinsky three-point play on an offensive rebound with about six minutes left. The 6-foot-3 sophomore Turinsky keyed Bellevue's standout defensive effort, sometimes from the top of the press and sometimes on the back line. "We can mix and match," Santoro said. "Kaitlyn up top, Hailey up top, just gives us different looks." Monday adds up to big momentum for Bellevue, which heads to Perkins on Thursday night for what is always a highly contested SBC Lake contest — especially after the Pirates won a district semifinal matchup last winter, 23-19. "League games are most important," Santoro said, "so we're happy to win tonight, but we've got to come back to practice and get ready for Thursday." VAN BUREN Bowman 1 0-0 2, Fisher 0 1-2 1, Durliat 4 2-2 13, Wymer 0 1-4 1, Wilkin 2 2-3 6, Ponn 2 2-2 6. TOTALS 9 8-13 29 BELLEVUE Ellie Freitag 0 2-2 2, Brooke Brown 1 0-0 3, Hailey Rees 7 1-3 17, Audrey Turner 5 1-2 14, Carrington Savage 3 0-0 8, Kyra Henney 1 0-0 2, Kaitlyn Turinsky 5 3-3 14. TOTALS 22 7-10 60 Van Buren 7 9 7 6 — 29Bellevue 13 20 22 5 — 60 3-point goals — Van Buren 3 (Durliat 3); Bellevue 9 (Turner 3, Rees 2, Savage 2, Brown 1)