Bellevue routs Columbian 62-22

It was not in the cards for Columbian.Another loss to rival Bellevue is something that coach Morgan Harrigan did not want, but there werestill positives to the night.Columbian fell to its Sandusky Bay Conference Lake Division rival Bellevue on Friday 62-22 at home."Not much went well for us tonight," Harrigan said. "We made three shots in the fourth quarter. They outworked us, bottom line."One of the biggest things that worked in TC's favor was the free throw percentage."We got to the free throw line a lot, and that worked out for us I guess," Harrigan said. "We haven't been to that line more than eight times all season, so to get there 19 times showed the type of pressure we were facing and that we were able to attack the rim."The Tornadoes (4-2, 0-2) had a free throw percentage of 78.9, but they know that they need to move forward.The first half saw a very defensive challenge of height as Maddy Richie challenged herself to guard Bellevue's top playmaker: Kaitlyn Turinsky."Maddy is a true competitor," said Harrigan of the senior. "She just wants to win. KT is a force to be reckoned with. We knew that with her going to Youngstown State University next year that she was key and that we needed to guard. Maddy took that challenge on herself, and I'm really proud of how she took that on."The physical defense of TC is what held the Lady Red (5-0, 2-0) to only 27 points in the first half."The girls played half-court defense well, which I was happy with." Harrigan said.After Turinsky made one of her two free throws, Richie pulled TC ahead 2-1, but that was the last time the teams would be that close.Bellevue went on a 7-0 run, but when Turinsky came back to the charity stripe, her shots missed."In the first half we weren't knocking down shots for whatever reason," Bellevue coach Kory Santoro said.That allowed for TC to take advantage from Zeis scoring a bucket.The only other time that TC scored was with 3:29 on the clock with a 3 from Lexi Beaston.In the second quarter, Richie made a bucket with an assist from Beaston, followed by a trip to the free throw line from Kenzie Felske. She split a pair, making it 20-10. The last shot that TC made was from Beaston for two points, before Bellevue added five points on making it 27-12 at the half.By the time the second half rolled around, the Tornadoes were down, in foul trouble and out of sync, which allowed Bellevue to take advantage of poor ball handling."I felt our overall team defense played very well," Santoro said. "I thought we guarded full-court man-to-man most of the game. I thought our girls did a great job staying out of foul trouble for the most part."The Lady Red scored on three consecutive steals in the third quarter.Ava Jakubcin-Theis stole the ball within 15 seconds of the third quarter to drive it to the hoop for two points.Less than 10 seconds later, Ellie Freitag stole the ball from TC to drill it in the paint for two, and less than a minute later, Carrington Savage stole and canned it for three.Turinsky finished off the 11-0 run. Her four-point run was when she was fouled by Richie and was sent to the charity stripe where she made the pair.Her other bucket came on an offensive rebound after Mazie Gracemyer missed her bucket.TC managed to break in for a moment on a Richie bucket, but Bellevue took possession of the ball once again.Gracemyer scored on a Tornado turnover, Turinsky scored on a putback, and Jakubcin-Theis swished one after causing a turnover.Beaston found herself at the line, and made her pair.It was 46-16 with 2:48 remaining. After TC stole the ball from the Lady Red, Madi Shriver found herself on the charity stripe, but split her free throws. With 1:35 on the clock, Richie was back on the line, and split hers.Beaston was fouled and she made both of her free throws at the end of the quarter, making it 53-20.The fourth quarter damaged TC. Mia Zeis got her fifth foul within seconds of the quarter starting, taking her out of the game."Not having Mia on the floor definitely hurt us," Harrigan said. "She wasn't able to be out there consistently."The Lady Red went on a 9-1 run, with the only interruption being from Marissa Allen, who was fouled and made both of her free throws.Harrigan had one message to her team."We can't hang our heads on this loss," Harrigan said. "We have to move forward and get ready for Fremont Ross and Norwalk." Bellevue 62, Columbian 22Bellevue (5-0, 2-0): Ellie Freitag 2 0-0 4, Lexie Easterwood 1 0-0 2, Brooklyn Kaufman 1 2-2 4, Bailey Nichols 3 0-0 3, Ava Jakubcin-Theis 5 4-4 16, Reese Meacham 3 0-0 3, Carrington Savage 5 0-0 5, Kaitlyn Turinsky 6 5-10 18, Mazie Gracemyer 3 0-0 7 TOTALS: 22 11-16 62Columbian (4-2, 0-2): Madi Shriver 0 1-2 1, Mia Zeis 1 0-0 2, Marissa Allen 0 2-2 2, Kenzie Felske 0 1-2 1, Lexi Beaston 1 6-6 9, Chloe Heyman 0 0-2 0, Maddie Richie 1 5-6 7 TOTALS: 3 15-20 22Bellevue 16 11 26 9–62Columbian 7 5 8 2–223-point goals: Bellevue 7 (Jakubcin-Theis 2, Nichols, Meacham, Savage, Turinsky, Gracemyer); Columbian 1 (Beaston)