Gracemyer carries Bellevue over Bryan for district title

FOSTORIA — Mazie Gracemyer likes a fast start. The Bellevue sophomore uses her bottled-up energy to give the top-seeded Lady Red a boost more times than not. Saturday in a district final, she teamed with freshman Ava Jakubcin-Theis to score the first 13 Bellevue points. The No. 2-ranked Lady Red were relentless, trouncing fifth-seeded Bryan 68-31 at Fostoria High School. "When I get ready for the game, I calm down and listen to music," Gracemyer said. "I get in that zone and from the get-go, I try to out-hustle. I use my energy and I guess it works." It definitely worked for Bellevue, which improved to 26-0 and will face Lutheran East (12-6) in a regional semifinal rematch at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Bluffton University. "Once I got into the tournament, I'm trying to focus more and lock in more," Gracemyer said. "I want to play my basketball and not let bad games define me. I just want to give my best." Jakubcin-Theis hit a 3 then scored inside for a quick 5-0 lead. After a bucket by Averyann Fisher for the Golden Bears (16-10), Jakubcin-Theis and Gracemyer scored to make it 9-2. Gracemyer hit two free throws and then picked a steal and score to make it 13-2. The two were catalysts for a big start for Bellevue. Ellie Freitag nabbed a steal and scored before a 3 from CJ Savage increased the lead to 19-2. Gracemyer scored again, Kaitlyn Turinsky scored on a putback and Turinsky tallied a three-point play to balloon the margin to 26-2. "The word we're using is relentless," Bellevue coach Kory Santoro said. "We want to be relentless for 32 minutes. I thought we got off to a great start and played great defense throughout." The Lady Red led 28-6 after one quarter and extended it early in the second quarter. Savage canned another triple before Gracemyer scored. Later, two scores from Jakubcin-Theis and another by Gracemyer gave Bellevue a 39-9 lead. In the Lady Red's first three tournament games, Gracemyer had 15 points against Vermilion, 17 points versus Upper Sandusky and 16 points against Lexington. She finished with a game-high 20 points against Bryan. "She's been one of the best players in the last seven or eight games for us," said Santoro of Gracemyer. "She's a gamer and she's an athlete. She's a player and she's been doing that the last seven or eight games." Bellevue took a 45-17 lead into the second half and pushed the game into a running clock. Turinsky, Gracemyer and Jakubcin-Theis scored to extend the advantage to 51-17. Later, Turinsky scored off of an offensive rebound and made two free throws to make it 57-22. Gracemyer scored twice more as the Lady Red led 61-25 after three quarters. "Bryan is a good program," Santoro said. "They've been in this environment for a while now. To come in here and play like we did is kudos to our players." Bellevue's pressure was overwhelming, forcing the Golden Bears into turnover after turnover. Bryan committed 28 turnovers, including 21 in the first half. "We stressed that we wanted to apply pressure," Santoro said. "We wanted to be aggressive without fouling. I thought for the most part we kept the ballhandlers in front of us. We got them in panic situations where they turned it over. I thought our defense was very good." Turinsky added 18 points and seven rebounds for the Lady Red. She was hampered by foul trouble in the first half Tuesday against Vermilion, but bounced back in a big way against Bryan. "Kaitlyn is a Division I player," said Santoro of the senior who will attend Youngstown State next season. "We had her out here guarding a guard. She's universal. She's a rare talent that comes along once in awhile. I thought she played phenomenal tonight." The district championship is the eighth for Bellevue under Santoro. The Lady Red are 8-1 in district title games in Santoro's 12 seasons. "First of all, I'm very excited for this group of girls," Santoro said. "They had a big target coming back and a lot of pressure put on them after last year. We lost three seniors and to be doing what we've been doing, we've won four tournament games with a running clock up to this point." BRYAN (16-10) Aniyah Langham 2 4-4 7, Piper Hamm 1 1-4 3, Averyann Fisher 1 2-4 4, Josey Arnold 3 2-4 9, Braya Hepker 1 0-0 2, Mylie Vollmer 1 0-0 2, Grezzy Kidston 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 10 9-16 31 BELLEVUE (26-0) Ellie Freitag 1 0-0 2, Ava Jakubcin-Theis 6 0-0 13, CJ Savage 2 0-0 6, Kaitlyn Turinsky 7 4-5 18, Mazie Gracemyer 8 4-5 20, Lexie Easterwood 1 0-0 2, Ava Hirt 1 0-0 2, Brooklyn Kaufman 1 0-1 2, Reese Meacham 1 0-0 3. TOTALS 28 8-11 68 Bryan 6 11 8 6 — 31 Bellevue 28 17 16 7 — 68 Three-point goals: Bryan 2 (Langham, Arnold); Bellevue 4 (Savage 2, Jakubcin-Theis, Meacham)