Bellevue takes over in second quarter vs. Rams

BELLEVUE -- Upper Sandusky was right there. The Rams trailed defending Div. IV state champions Bellevue by just two points after one quarter Saturday. Then, the avalanche came. The top-seeded and No. 2-ranked Lady Red tallied all 26 points scored in the second quarter, blitzing the eighth-seeded Rams 57-22 in a Div. IV second-round tournament game. "I wouldn't say our zone gave them problems, but they missed some of their shots in the first quarter," Upper Sandusky coach Jerry Vent said. "They didn't miss them in the second quarter. Playing coach (Kory) Santoro throughout the years, you know the level of intensity is going to go up when they're maybe struggling in his mind. "Their defensive pressure went up big time in the second quarter." Upper Sandusky finishes the season with a record of 5-17. The Rams had some nice moments, but couldn't string multiple quality games together in a row. "This group is resilient, there is no doubt," Vent said. "I know coaches say that all the time, but this group is resilient. They come in every single day and there's never an excuse. Pretty promising group, I'm going to be honest." Bellevue (24-0) led just 14-12 after one quarter before the onslaught came in the second quarter. Ellie Freitag scored before 3-pointers from Mazie Gracemyer and CJ Savage made it 22-12. Freitag scored before Upper Sandusky used a timeout. The break did little to slow the Lady Red. Savage and Freitag went back-to-back with 3-pointers. Gracemyer added two more buckets, getting fouled on the second. "We tried to spread them out," Vent said. "We wanted to score early if we could and then be patient. I thought we did a very good job of that in the first quarter. To his credit, he told his girls to deny everything on the wings and when our girls would pick up their dribble, we got put in tough situations." She made the free throw to extend the advantage to 37-12. Another triple from Savage helped Bellevue finish off the 26-0 run in the second quarter. "I thought we came out a little complacent," Santoro said. "You can talk to these girls all you want about motivation and not overlooking people. But, people are going to come out and give us their best shot. They had nothing to lose and everything to gain today." The Lady Red got the game into running clock mode in the third quarter. Savage made a 3-pointer and two free throws around an offense rebound and score by Ava Jakubcin-Theis. Kaitlyn Turinsky scored late to give Bellevue a 53-18 edge after three quarters. "I liked the way they responded to our challenge," Santoro said. "They knew they weren't playing their best defense either. I like how they rose to the occasion there." The Lady Red got off to a nice start, but sloppy play allowed the Rams to stay close. Jakubcin-Theis and Gracemyer scored before a 3 from Lexie Easterwood made it 12-5. Upper Sandusky asnwered with a 3 from Ava Romich before Addison Frey scored. Turinsky pushed Bellevue up 14-10, but a bucket from Molly Minehart cut the Lady Red's lead to two points after one quarter. "I think today was a little bit of a summary of our season, to be honest," Vent said. "Just the idea that we had moments where we played really, really, really good against some really good teams. We just didn't have enough to be consistent in the games we were in or throughout the season." Gracemyer and Savage each tallied 17 points for Bellevue. "I thought we did what we did what we needed to do," Santoro said. "I thought Mazie Gracemyer and CJ shot the ball really well. As we go down this tournament trail, games are going to start getting a little tougher. We've had six or seven straight games with running clocks. We're ready to play some basketball." The Rams finished with 22 turnovers and didn't make a free throw. Upper Sandusky has just one senior in Bryn Cundiff. "We're not necessarily a zone team typically, but after watching the film the last week, I thought going to a little bit of a 3-2 zone might help us slow them down a little bit," Vent said. "They have shooters at every position and it's just tough. You're going to give up something."