Bellevue's Kory Santoro gets 200th career win

BELLEVUE — Kory Santoro added another milestone basketball to the family collection on Friday night. Bellevue held off Sandusky 58-50 for Santoro's 200th career victory. Santoro, in his 10th year as the Lady Red's head coach, has only 41 losses and his teams have won five district championships. Friday's win was vital if Bellevue wants to compete for a 14th straight conference championship. The Lady Red had lost three of their last four games prior to taking the court, but the win raised their record to 7-5 overall and 3-1 in the SBC Lake Division. "First of all, I was excited to win tonight's game to get us back on track," Santoro said. "That just comes with coaching a lot of great players over the years. Any coach will tell you you win with great players." One of those players is junior guard Hailey Rees, who finished with 27 points and nine rebounds. "We were really hoping to get this win for him tonight," Rees said. "We had a little celebration planned for him. It was good defense and making our shots. He was pretty happy. Our effort was there." Bellevue jumped out to a 23-11 lead after one quarter. The offensive show included a 3-pointer just before the buzzer by Rees. But Bellevue's shooting touch, at least from the 3-point line, was not present in the first half. The Lady Red went 2 for 16 from beyond the arc in the first two quarters, but Ellie Freitag and Brooke Brown made 3s in the first minute of the third quarter to give Bellevue a 35-20 lead. The margin grew to 42-23 on a Rees 3-pointer midway through the third quarter. Sandusky, though, made a game of it in the fourth quarter. The Blue Streaks, who brought a six-game winning streak to Bellevue, cut the home team's lead to 51-43 on a Milly Larkins basket with 3:32 to play. Devareya Rice's 3-pointer made it 55-48 with 45 seconds to play, but the win was not in doubt as long as Rees had possession. She scored nine of Bellevue's points in the fourth quarter and made 9 of 10 free throw attempts. "When she gets downhill she does a good job of finishing," Santoro said. "When she gets downhill she does a pretty good job of finishing. We'd like her to finish a little stronger at times but she gets to the free throw line. "She's our leader and she did what she needed to do for us to win." Kaitlyn Turinsky added 14 points and 11 rebounds. Sandusky (6-6, 2-2) committed 28 turnovers, which cut short any momentum the Streaks tried to build. The Streaks also left a lot of points at the foul line, making just 9 of 21 free throw tries. "One thing we've been very good over the years at is creating turnovers and creating offense through our turnovers," Santoro said. "We've gotten away from that a little bit. We said we have to get back to what has made us successful and that's creating pressure and getting turnovers." Ra'Kiya Collier led Sandusky with 13 points while Rice and Larkins finished with 11. "We scrapped," said Sandusky coach John Winborn, whose team forced 24 Bellevue turnovers. "Kory runs a great program and we earned every one of those 50 points we put up. "We lost track of shooters a couple times on the back end of the press and that's what ended up blowing it open. We just couldn't overcome it." Santoro posed for pictures afterward and held a basketball commemorating the win. "I'm excited but it's just a milestone," he said. "I"m gonna go home and put it with the rest of the balls in the family." SANDUSKY Mae Rameau 2 4-7 8, Devareya Rice 5 0-0 11, Ra'Kiya Collier 6 1-6 13, Maekhiya Rameau 1 1-2 3, Milly Larkins 4 3-4 11, Denasia Coy 0 0-2 0, Shauntha Wilson 2 0-0 4. TOTALS 20 9-21 50 BELLEVUE Ellie Freitag 2 0-0 6, Brooke Brown 2 1-2 7, Hailey Rees 8 9-10 27, Audrey Turner 0 2-2 2, Kaitlyn Turinsky 5 4-7 14, Kyra Henney 0 2-2 2. TOTALS 17 18-23 58 Sandusky 11 9 13 17 -- 50Bellevue 23 6 18 11 -- 58 Three-point goals: Sandusky 1 (Rice); Bellevue 6 (Freitag 2, Brown 2, Rees 2)