Talented Bellevue seeks state berth

BELLEVUE — No Bellevue senior wants to be among that class. "That class" meaning one that doesn't win a league title for Bellevue girls basketball. The streak sits at 14 league championships in a row. With five starters back, the Lady Red have to be considered the favorites to make it 15 straight. "It's an expectation. We don't say a lot about it," Bellevue coach Kory Santoro said. "Everybody knows. We talk about it a little bit, but we don't dwell on it. The senior class knows they're on the clock. "When you come in as freshmen, you want to win four straight league championships. That's how it's been here. They don't want to be the class that breaks that streak." Senior Hailey Rees is the top returner for Bellevue, which went 21-6 last season while winning a district title. Rees averaged 17.7 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. She will be flanked by 6-foot-2 junior Kaitlyn Turinsky. The lanky post tallied 12.1 points and 7.3 rebounds per night. "Hailey has been the District 6 Player of the Year the past two years and the top player in our area," Santoro said. "Now Kaitlyn has received a few Division I offers so far. We feel like we have probably the two best players in the area on one team." Audrey Turner was a great additional option for Bellevue, scoring 8.4 points per game. Brooke Brown tossed in 6.8 points per night and made a team-high 55 3-pointers last year. Point guard Ellie Freitag was the fifth starter for the Lady Red, doing a little bit of everything for Bellevue. "You throw in Brooke, who led the area in 3-point shooting, and Audrey, who is a four-year starter now," Santoro said. "I think Ellie Freitag is going to surprise a lot of people. I think she could be one of the top point guards in the area. I feel like with five returners we have from a regional semifinal team, we feel very confident." The Lady Red had just one senior last year in Kyra Henney, who played in all 27 games and averaged 3.2 points. "She's playing softball at Bowling Green State University," said Santoro of Henney. "We're going to miss her leadership and toughness. You have tough kids and that rubs off on other girls. She's that type of girl that brought that kind of toughness to us. We're still trying to find that person. We call it our (Dennis) Rodman person." Bellevue had plenty of success last year, particularly on the defensive end. The Lady Red allowed only 36.4 points per game. Bellevue surrendered 50 or more points once and that came in a 90-57 win over Sandusky. Santoro thinks the Lady Red can be even better this year. "Defensively, I think we can get stronger," he said. "I thought we played good defense last year and that was a part of the 15-game winning streak. I think we can get to another level defensively. I think some of our younger kids have to get brought up to the speed of the game and physicality of the game." The Lady Red will get a boost from a fully healthy CJ Savage. She was hampered by an injury last year that limited her to 10 games. "CJ Savage is a very, very good 3-point shooter," Santoro said. "People will see that this year. She was hurt last year and didn't get to show it. Bailey Nichols is much improved. Mazie Gracemyer is very athletic." With so much talent returning, iron sharpens iron. The numbers aren't tremendous for Bellevue, but what the group has could just be the right mix. "Our practices have been really competitive," Santoro said. "We have 17 girls this year and I think we have the right 17 girls. We have a nice freshman class coming in that brings a lot of competition. That fits in with our returning players." There's no hiding the goals for Bellevue. The Lady Red expect to win a league title and make a deep tournament run. Bellevue has never made the state tournament under Santoro. "Our goal is to win our 15th straight league title," Santoro said. "That's a big goal of ours. We want to get to the state tournament. We feel like with the divisions changing and us going from Division II to Division IV, if we play well and do the things we can do, we feel like we can make a nice run." Roster No. Name Pos. Ht. Yr.1 Alaynna Lenthe G 5-2 9 2 Ellie Freitag G 5-4 10 3 Brooke Brown G 5-8 12 4 Hailey Rees G 5-9 12 10 Audrey Turner G 5-8 12 12 Bailey Nichols F 5-10 11 13 Mazie Gracemyer G 5-6 9 14 Ava Hirt G 5-7 9 21 Carrington Savage G 6-0 10 30 Kaitlyn Turinsky F 6-3 11 33 Mariah Kistler F 5-11 11