Bellevue girls roll into district final

BUCYRUS — Debunking the myth. The common cliché is it is hard to beat a time three times in one season. Bellevue doesn't work with clichés. The top-seeded Lady Red dominated fourth-seeded Perkins early and rolled to a 60-35 Division IV district semifinal win Wednesday at Bucyrus High School. Despite the win, Bellevue coach Kory Santoro thought his team could have played much better. "I thought we got off to a great start, but then I thought we started coasting and not playing team basketball," he said. "I know we've beat them pretty good both times (61-27 on Dec. 19 and 77-33 on Jan. 31) and I'm not saying that was in their minds. They know better than that. We talked about it at halftime and I think the message was sent loud and clear that we have to play better." Bellevue improved to 23-1 overall and will face second-seeded Shelby (22-2) in the district final at 2 p.m. Saturday back at Bucyrus. "You get to this point and now the window of opportunity shrinks," Santoro said. "You're going to be playing good teams night in and night out. You have to be ready to play. We're happy to be here." The Lady Red were scorching hot out of the gate. Consecutive buckets by Kaitlyn Turinsky was followed by a 3 from Brooke Brown. A bucket from Audrey Turner forced a Perkins timeout. That did little to slow Bellevue as two buckets from Hailey Rees around one by Ellie Freitag made it 15-0. Turinsky made it 17-0 before the Pirates (11-13) got on the board after a score from Camryn VanVlerah. The Lady Red didn't relent from there. Rees knocked in a pair of free throws before triples from CJ Savage and Mazie Gracemyer gave Bellevue a 25-2 lead after one quarter. Perkins had 11 turnovers in the first quarter. "I don't really have words," Perkins coach Leia Lyden said. "We initially didn't handle the pressure very well. I think we got in our heads a little bit. Once we calmed down, we were able to handle the ball a little bit better and break the press. Once the pregame jitters were out, we started to play a little bit better." The pace slowed down a little bit in the second quarter as the Lady Red took a 36-10 lead into halftime. Bellevue wasn't able to dominate like it did in the first quarter, but used an 18-14 edge in the third quarter to take a 54-24 lead into the fourth quarter. Turinsky was able to control both ends of the floor for Bellevue. The 6-foot-3 junior finished with 18 points, 18 rebounds and six blocks for the Lady Red. "I truly believe she's one of the best players in this area," said Santoro of Turinsky. "Just what she does offensively and defensively, I think she's one of the best players in the area. Night in and night out, she's going to give you the double-double and the blocks. "Another stat that no one talks about is the shots she alters. No one keeps track of that and maybe they ought to because it's crazy how many shots she alters." Camryn VanVlerah led Perkins with 14 points while Jordyn Brunner chipped in 10 points for the Pirates. "Overall, I think it's been a good year," Lyden said. "It's definitely been a growth experience for me as a first-time coach and for some of the players as well. Some of them are getting varsity experience for the first year. I think what we're really proud of is every single person has improved in some way, shape or form." VanVlerah, Zakiyah Castile, Haylie Brunner and Avery Baker are seniors for Perkins. The quartet played for three coaches in four years, but stayed the course. "They've been great leaders," Lyden said. "They've been able to buy into our system and it's tough coming into your fourth year with a third coach. They did not check out and that's important. They showed that if you stick with it and you fight, then everybody will fall into place. Hailey Rees added 12 points for Bellevue, who made just 6 of 14 free throws. Bellevue made 4 of 12 freebies in its first tournament game against Ontario. "We're at a stage where a win is a win," Santoro said. "We'll take any kind of win in tournament. You win by (25), but we're not real happy with how we played and how we did it because we're a heck of a lot better team than that. "Too many missed free throws and too many missed lay-ups." PERKINS (11-13)Jordyn Brunner 3 4-5 10, Haylie Brunner 1 0-2 2, Mallorie Jones 2 1-2 5, Camryn VanVlerah 7 0-1 14, Hannah Koelsch 1 0-0 2, Braelyn Davie 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 15 5-10 35 BELLEVUE (23-1)Ellie Freitag 3 0-0 7, Brooke Brown 1 0-0 3, Hailey Rees 5 2-4 12, Audrey Turner 3 0-2 6, Kaitlyn Turinsky 7 4-8 18, CJ Savage 3 0-0 9, Mazie Gracemyer 2 0-0 5. TOTALS 24 6-14 60 Perkins 2 8 14 11 — 35Bellevue 25 11 18 6 — 60 Three-point goals: Perkins 0; Bellevue 6 (Savage 3, Freitag, Brown, Gracemyer)