Guard play leads Bellevue to big win over Clyde

BELLEVUE — Bellevue's guards are as tough as they come. Whether Ellie Freitag, Ava Jakubcin-Theis, CJ Savage or Mazie Gracemyer, the quartet can get after you. There will certainly be nights where any of the four can lead the Lady Red in scoring. Against Clyde on Saturday, the group combined for 55 points and 10 made 3-pointers to lift the Lady Red to a 69-32 Sandusky Bay Conference Lake Division win over Clyde. Jakubcin-Theis topped the Lady Red (4-0, 1-0 SBC Lake) with 20 points while Freitag scored 14 points. Gracemyer chipped in 12 points and Savage knocked down three 3s en route to nine points. "I think we have excellent guard play on this team," Bellevue coach Kory Santoro said. "You can go up and down our first eight girls and you have several guards in there that can score any night. Ava is showing the area what kind of player she is and is going to be. Ellie Freitag is another one that can shoot the ball very, very well. "Mazie Gracemyer can shoot it very well. CJ, too. We have girls that can light it up." Clyde (3-2, 0-1) came out strong. It was 10-10 after a 3 from Ember Andres. Bellevue was up just 13-12 before it got going. Jakubcin-Theis scored before Savage hit a 3 to give the Lady Red an 18-12 lead after one quarter. Consecutive triples from Freitag opened the scoring in the second quarter. Kaitlyn Turinsky then scored to make it 26-12. "We definitely had to come together," Jakubcin-Theis said. "We've been working all week for this game in practice. We have to get up to the next level. This was our first league game. We wanted to send a message that we're here and we're back." After playing well early, turnovers caught up to Clyde. The Fliers had five turnovers in the first quarter and 10 in the second quarter. "They're good, don't get me wrong," Clyde coach Brian Heck said. "We came into the defending state champ's house and they have a pride in their program. They showed it. We knew that coming in. "We wanted to come in and fight and prove that we can compete. We did for a little stretch. They just got unbelievably hot. Defensively, they're phenomenal." Bellevue continued to play well, going up 32-14 on Freitag's third 3 of the second quarter. Jakubcin-Theis splashed in a triple later, then scored consecutive buckets off of Clyde turnovers. The Lady Red led 39-16 at halftime. "They don't want to lose either," Santoro said. "They have goals and places they want to go. We knew they were going to come out well. Coach Heck coaches them hard and he always has his teams prepared. We knew if we settled down and do what we do, we were going to start hitting some shots." Bellevue kept the pressure up in the second half, scoring the first 11 points of the third quarter. A 3 from Gracemyer and tally from Turinsky extended the lead to 50-16. The Lady Red were up 58-24 after three quarters and pushed the margin to 63-28 on a triple by Savage. That got the game into a running clock. "It's tough," Heck said. "We also need to learn how to take that aggressiveness defensively. We need to learn how to go through that aggressiveness. Instead of getting around them, we need to get through them. This was a good test for us to see the level we want to be at." Santoro and Heck have had battles over the years dating back to Heck's time at Perkins. Both coaches were fired up in the second half and exchanged words from their benches. "There's been history, good history," Heck said. "It's two competitors going at it that have pride in their programs. He got his state championship and wants to prove it wasn't a fluke, and it wasn't." Kelsey Ray led Clyde with nine points. The Fliers have faced what is likely the favorites to win each division of the SBC over their last three games. Clyde topped Gibsonburg (River) and were competitive with Margaretta (Bay) before the loss to Bellevue. "We had a gauntlet of three games to prove where we're at," Heck said. "Bellevue is one of the best, if not the front-runner in Division IV to win state. Margaretta is one of, if not the front-runner to win Division VI. We proved in Gibsonburg that we could beat high-quality teams with quality players. We proved with Margaretta we could compete with state-level players and a state-level program. "Bellevue is in our division. If we have aspirations to cut multiple nets, this is the type of team we'll have to go through. This was a good way for our girls to see the level we have to be at." Turinsky added 13 points and six rebounds for Bellevue. She became the program's all-time leader for career rebounds in a win over Oak Harbor last Tuesday. The Lady are off until Friday when they continue SBC Lake Division play at Tiffin Columbian. "I thought getting our first league win was huge," Santoro said. "We have to keep building on that. Every night in this league is going to be tough because teams are well-coached. We know everyone is improved, but I think we've improved, too. "We have a mix. We're not a veteran group. We have a lot of young kids that are growing and learning as we go." CLYDE (3-2) Annmarie Davis 2 0-2 4, Taitum Jeffrey 0 7-8 7, Kelsey Ray 3 1-2 9, Ariah Farrar 1 3-4 5, Ember Andres 1 1-2 4, Lillian Greenslade 1 0-2 2, Angelia Ferkel 0 1-2 1. TOTALS 8 13-22 32 BELLEVUE (4-0) Ellie Freitag 5 1-2 14, Ava Jakubcin-Theis 8 2-2 20, CJ Savage 3 0-0 9, Kaitlyn Turinsky 6 1-5 13, Mazie Gracemyer 5 0-0 12, Bailey Nichols 0 1-2 1. TOTALS 27 5-11 69 Clyde 12 4 8 8 — 32 Bellevue 18 21 19 11 — 69 Three-point goals: Clyde 3 (Ray 2, Andres); Bellevue 10 (Freitag 3, Savage 3, Jakubcin-Theis 2, Gracemyer 2)