Jakubcin-Theis leads Bellevue past Avon Lake

CASTALIA — Once again, Bellevue faced a tough test. Like they have all year, the Lady Red took care of business. Division IV No. 1 Bellevue scored the first 10 points of the game and grinded out a 60-44 non-league win over Avon Lake at the Tourney Tune-Up at Margaretta High School on Sunday. The Shoregals were Division III state runners-up last year, falling to Purcell-Marian in the game before the Lady Red won their state championship. "I followed them last year and we played them a couple years ago," Bellevue coach Kory Santoro said. "I'm very familiar with their team. I know they lost a couple players, but they also have a few good returning players from last year's team. We're in a very familiar situation as them. You have to find ways to reload and do it again." Ava Jakubcin-Theis opened the scoring for the Lady Red (16-0). After Mazie Gracemyer split two free throws, Kaitlyn Turinsky and Gracemyer laid in buckets. Another split at the free throw line from Gracemyer and a score from Turinsky made it 10-0 just 2:19 into the game. "It was super big," said Jakubcin-Theis of the start. "We always want to throw the first punch and kick. That's what has led us to where we are now, being 16-0. I think it's important to come out and be strong." From there, Avon Lake (13-5) played better. The Shoregals outscored Bellevue 9-8 the final 5:08 of the quarter, cutting the Lady Red's lead to 18-9. Molly Milligan scored to open the second quarter for Avon Lake, but Bellevue responded with the next nine points. Jakubcin-Theis made two free throws before consecutive buckets from Turinsky. A tally from Gracemyer put Bellevue up 27-11. "We told them in the locker room that big-game players show up in big-time moments," Santoro said. "That's what Ava did. I thought her and Kaitlyn did a nice job. Ava came in and was lights out tonight for us. She hit some big shots for us. KT did a lot of good things offensively and defensively." The Lady Red pushed the lead as high as 18 points before taking a 31-16 lead into halftime. Bellevue was just as tough defensively in the third quarter, limiting the Shoregals to a 3-for-11 effort from the field. In the meantime, the Lady Red used a 7-2 run over the last 6:37 of the quarter to go up 40-24 after three quarters. Gracemyer made two free throws and a jumper from Jakubcin-Theis at the buzzer aided Bellevue. "I think we didn't play really good defense in the first half," Jakubcin-Theis said. "In the second half, we came out and had an idea of what we wanted to do. We talk about the first four minutes, so we wanted to focus those minutes on the offensive side. We wanted to push that lead up." Both teams played well offensively in the fourth quarter. Bellevue pushed the lead back to 17 points at one point. Turinsky finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds. "There's 12 minutes in a game we must win," Santoro said. "I thought we did all things right tonight in those 12 minutes. I thought the four minutes after halftime, we won that. We closed it out in the last four minutes and did what we needed to." "If you handle the ball, rebound and play defense, you're going to win games. That's what we did tonight." The game was the start of a busy final two weeks of the regular season for Bellevue. The Lady Red host Sandusky on Wednesday before a trip to Norwalk in a crucial Sandusky Bay Conference Lake Division contest Friday. Next week, Bellevue plays Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday to wrap up the regular season. "We'll take it one game at a time," Jakubcin-Theis said. "We have goals for each night and things we want to get done. We have things we want to work on in practice. That's our mindset going into it." AVON LAKE (13-5) Riley Koury 2 0-0 4, Frankie Persia 4 0-0 10, Olivia Miller 2 4-4 9, Evelyn Ritt 1 0-2 2, Molly Milligan 6 0-0 12, Mariela DiTullio 0 1-2 1, Erin Dean 2 0-0 6. TOTALS 17 5-8 44 BELLEVUE (16-0) Ellie Freitag 1 3-4 5, Ava Jakubcin-Theis 6 7-10 19, CJ Savage 1 0-2 3, Kaitlyn Turinsky 8 0-0 16, Mazie Gracemyer 4 4-5 12, Bailey NIchols 2 0-0 5. TOTALS 22 14-21 60 Avon Lake 9 7 8 20 — 44 Bellevue 18 13 9 20 — 60 Three-point goals: Avon Lake 5 (Persia 2, Dean 2, Miller); Bellevue 2 (Savage, Nichols)