Bellevue dominates 2nd half to blitz Perkins

SANDUSKY — Bellevue and Perkins were tied with less than two minutes to go in the first half. The final score makes that hard to believe, but it is true. The Lady Red scored the last seven points of the second quarter then limited to Perkins to just five points in the second half, blitzing the Pirates 61-27 in Sandusky Bay Conference Lake Division action Thursday. "We made a lineup change before halftime and made a few shots," Bellevue coach Kory Santoro said. "We talk about how there's 12 minutes in the game we really need to play well in. The first four minutes of the game you have to win. We think the next four most important minutes of those 12 minutes are right after halftime. "We wanted to come out and set the tone." A 3-pointer by Perkins' Mallorie Jones tied the game at 22 with 4:43 to go in the second quarter as Bellevue (9-0, 4-0 SBC Lake) tallied just three points over a 7:20 stretch. Both teams missed on opportunities before things clicked for the Lady Red. Kaitlyn Turinsky split two free throws before consecutive 3s from Audrey Turner and Ellie Freitag opened the Bellevue advantage to 29-22 at halftime. The two makes were bright signs for Bellevue, which made just 6 of 24 triples in the first half. The Lady Red carried the momentum into the third quarter. Ahead 32-25, Turinsky scored and then added a three-point play off of one of Perkins' 26 turnovers. Mazie Gracemyer then canned a 3 off of another Pirates turnover to make it 40-25. Buckets from Hailey Rees and Gracemyer ballooned the lead to 44-25. Brooke Brown then canned a 3 and Gracemyer scored again to make it 49-25 after three quarters. "We just didn't make shots, flat out," Perkins coach Leia Lyden said. "The biggest difference in the first half and second half was they made shots and we didn't." Perkins (2-4, 0-2) committed six turnovers in the first quarter, seven in the second quarter, and nine in the third. "We run multiple presses and the press we were in, some girls sometimes just get out of position in it because it's a tricky press," Santoro said. "We went back to our basic, full-court zone press. That way, they were comfortable with it and were getting in their spots. I thought that helped change things." Bellevue made it 54-25 after baskets by Rees and Turner early in the fourth quarter. The Pirates scored just three points over a 18:17 stretch of the game. "After halftime, we knew we needed to step it up," Turinsky said. "I just know if we're not shooting good or stuff isn't going in, that will come. We have to play solid defense. The defense was picking it up pretty good." Perkins sat back in its 2-3 zone and dared the Lady Red to shoot from distance. Lyden for the most part thought it worked until Bellevue got hot. "We had a little bit of a mismatch as far as height goes," Lyden said. "It is taking a risk playing a zone against a shooting team. They didn't shoot so well in the first half, but in the second half, they did. That's where it hurt us." Turinsky was everywhere for Bellevue. She finished with a game-high 12 points and used her 6-foot-3 frame to gather up 18 rebounds. She also blocked five shots for the Lady Red. "Every shot, we need to crash," Turinsky said. "Every single play we have to crash to get second opportunities for the offense or even putbacks. That really helps. If we miss a shot, so what? I'm there to rebound." Camryn VanVlerah scored 11 points for Perkins with 10 of those coming in the first seven minutes of the game. "They are not distracted, but with exams going on, it can be a little stressful," Lyden said. "Hopefully they won't have much to stress about after this week and we can solely focus on basketball. We gotta take this time to learn and grow as a team." Gracemyer and Freitag each scored nine points for Bellevue. Turner added eight points and Rees had seven points and five rebounds. Bellevue finished 10 of 42 from 3. "We've been shooting a lot of 3s this year," Santoro said. "We said we were going to let it fly because we have a lot of good shooters. We also know we can get it inside and drive to the basket. We're a good 3-point shooting team." The Lady Red are back in action Monday at Division II Clay (5-3) before hosting Margaretta (7-1) on Dec. 28 and Copley (8-0) in a regional rematch Dec. 30. Then, Bellevue travels to Norwalk (7-0, 3-0) in a key SBC Lake contest Jan. 4. "We don't look ahead," Santoro said. "We could be playing the biggest team in the state in two games, but the most important one is the next one on the schedule." BELLEVUE (9-0, 4-0)Ellie Freitag 3 0-0 9, Brooke Brown 2 0-0 6, Hailey Rees 3 1-2 7, Audrey Turner 3 0-0 8, Kaitlyn Turinsky 5 2-3 12, Mazie Gracemyer 4 0-0 9, CJ Savage 2 0-0 5, Ava Hirt 1 0-0 3, Alaynna Lenthe 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 24 3-5 61PERKINS (2-5, 0-2)Allie Brunner 1 0-0 2, Jordyn Brunner 0 3-4 3, Haylie Brunner 1 1-2 3, Mallorie Jones 2 1-1 6, Camryn VanVlerah 5 1-2 11, Hannah Koelsch 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 10 6-9 27Bellevue 19 10 20 12 — 61Perkins 14 8 3 2 — 27Three-point goals: Bellevue 10 (Freitag 3, Brown 2, Turner 2, Gracemyer, Savage, Hirt); Perkins 1 (Jones)