Bellevue storms past Vermilion into district final

FOSTORIA — Ava Jakubcin-Theis had a high-arcing 3-pointer bounce around and fall in Tuesday. The Bellevue freshman admitted she hasn't had her best game lately, but it was that kind of night. Jakubcin-Theis scored 22 points — the second-most she's had in a game this season — lifting the top-seeded and No. 2-ranked Lady Red to a 72-34 victory in a Div. IV district semifinal at Fostoria High School. "I feel like I have been a little rut lately with my shooting and finishing," Jakubcin-Theis said. "I just try to stay consistent by getting in the gym. Tonight the shots were falling and it felt good that the work was paying off." Bellevue improved to 25-0 and will play for a district championship at 3 p.m. Saturday back at Fostoria. "It's one of the goals," Lady Red coach Kory Santoro said. "We want to win a league title and make a deep tournament run. Our next step is a district championship." Jakubcin-Theis didn't score until a bucket with 48 seconds to go in the first quarter gave Bellevue a 15-7 lead. She picked a steal and scored early in the second quarter before turning a Vermilion turnover into a bucket with 6:23 remaining in the second quarter. "Any big game we've ever played in, she has risen to the occasion," Santoro said. "If you look back at any big game we've played, she's been who she is. Tonight, I knew she was going to have a big game. She played really well." Jakubcin-Theis scored at the second-quarter buzzer, pushing Bellevue ahead 37-16 at halftime. She was even more dominant as the Lady Red pulled away in the second half. She scored 14 points in the third quarter as Bellevue surged away from Vermilion (14-10). "It felt great," Jakubcin-Theis said. "I feel like I play bigger in the bigger environments. It was definitely one of those nights tonight." The Sailors were tough early on. Bellevue raced out to a 10-0 lead behind a quick start from Mazie Gracemyer. Vermilion's Joscelyn Alvarado scored before a three-point play from Abby Gawry. A bucket from Emma Gebhardt cut the deficit to 10-7. Even after Bellevue got the last seven points of the first quarter, Gawry opened the second quarter with another three-point play. "They're non-stop and they know what they're doing," said Vermilion coach Doug Milhalic of the Lady Red. "They cut every single time and it's hard. If you collapse on someone driving, they're going to hit the 3. It's a pick your poison of how you want to stop them." But from there, Bellevue was able to speed up Vermilion and force a plethora of turnovers. The Sailors had eight turnovers in the first quarter and nine more in the second quarter. That allowed the Lady Red to get out and run. CJ Savage hit consecutive 3-pointers to make it 29-10. Later, Ava Hirt and Ellie Freitag made triples before Jakubcin-Theis' late score. "I thought that group with Lexie Easterwood, Ava Hirt and Bailey Nichols came in and brought energy," Santoro said. "We rolled with it. It shows the type of players that when someone is out, someone else is going to pick them up. I thought that group off the bench did an excellent job." Bellevue played the final 3:44 of the first quarter without 6-foot-3 center Kaitlyn Turinsky. She also sat out the entire second quarter with two fouls. "We haven't played too much without KT on the floor," Santoro said. "Defensively, it changed what we were doing. I thought CJ Savage showed a different side of things to come next year. She had five or six blocked shots in the second quarter alone." Gawry paced Vermilion with 13 points while Alvarado added six points. The two are the lone seniors for the Sailors. "Those two seniors have been with me since the beginning," Mihalic said. "They've done a lot for our team. "We started with four wins then went to seven and then eight. They helped us lead us to 14 this year. This team was a lot of fun to be around." Gracemyer added 15 points for Bellevue while Turinsky came on strong and finished with 12 points and seven rebounds. Savage had nine points on three 3s and 11 rebounds. Her second 3-pointer of the night gave her 67 for the season, the most in a single-season at Bellevue, surpassing Casey Santoro's mark of 66. The last seven wins for the Lady Red have included a running clock. This season, Bellevue has won 16 times with a running clock. "As you go along in the tournament trail, you like to get your girls in rhythm," Santoro said. "You want to have your top-8 girls in rhythm and playing meaningful minutes. Tonight, we let them go a little bit longer because of where we're at." VERMILION (14-10) Jaz Rayl 1 0-0 2, Emma Gebhardt 1 0-0 2, Abby Gawry 5 2-2 13, Joscelyn Alvarado 3 0-0 6, Morgan Frenk 1 3-5 5, Maggie Falknor 1 0-0 3, Kara Russell 1 0-0 3. TOTALS 13 5-7 34 BELLEVUE (25-0) Ellie Freitag 4 0-0 9, Ava Jakubcin-Theis 10 1-1 22, CJ Savage 3 0-0 9, Kaitlyn Turinsky 6 0-0 12, Mazie Gracemyer 6 2-3 15, Ava Hirt 1 0-0 3, Reese Meacham 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 31 3-4 72 Vermilion 7 9 11 7 — 34 Bellevue 17 20 24 11 — 72 Three-point goals: Vermilion 3 (Gawry, Falknor, Russell); Bellevue 7 (Savage 3, Freitag, Jakubcin-Theis, Gracemyer, Hirt)