Lady Red halt Rams' streak with 56-47 win

By BRAD FRANK
Gazette Sports Editor

Belle­vue senior Han­nah Lilly (4), right, dri­ves to the bas­ket Tues­day against Upper San­dusky in a non-league var­sity girls bas­ket­ball game. (Gazette photo by Brad Frank)

The Belle­vue Lady Red snagged another win against a for­mi­da­ble oppo­nent Tues­day, get­ting past Upper San­dusky by a score of 56–47 in a non-league var­sity girls bas­ket­ball contest.

The win against the Lady Rams was the next out of a hand­ful of qual­ity wins in Bellevue’s 2012–13 season.

Upper San­dusky entered Tuesday’s game with a 12–1 record, hav­ing won 12 straight games after a loss to Carey in the sea­son opener.

The Lady Red per­sisted through a back-and-forth first 10 min­utes of Tuesday’s game, even­tu­ally grab­bing a lead they would not relin­quish mid­way through the sec­ond quarter.

Belle­vue notched a 10–4 lead to open the game, but Upper San­dusky stormed back to grab a 19–14 lead late in the first period. Belle­vue closed the quar­ter with a 6–0 run to own a 20–19 lead after the first eight minutes.

The game saw a lead change on the game’s first four field goals of the sec­ond quar­ter, even­tu­ally result­ing in a 24–23 Belle­vue lead.

The Lady Red led by six at half­time, 32–26, and held Upper San­dusky to just five third-quarter points to take a 44–31 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Lady Rams outscored Belle­vue by four in the fourth quar­ter to keep the final mar­gin in sin­gle dig­its, 56–47.

Belle­vue coach Ryan Orshoski talked about the process of pulling away from Upper San­dusky, in what was a fast-paced game the major­ity of Tuesday’s contest.

“I thought that a lot kids stepped up for Upper,” he said. “They were right there. They had a lead quite a few times early in the first half, play­ing at that tempo. We still felt the tempo was in our favor though and that, at some point, we’d be able to put some space between us and them.

“Finally, we were able to get some breath­ing room with our press and some layups off of the press.”

Belle­vue has now won a season-high five straight games.

The win­ners were led by sopho­more Carly San­toro, who posted 29 points Tues­day. Jake Turner added eight points.

Belle­vue employed a full-court zone press in the first half and went to a full-court man-to-man press in the sec­ond half.

The Lady Red, lack­ing size on their inte­rior, faced the task of defend­ing a tall Upper San­dusky post player, Tay­lor Graboski.

“We don’t have any­body who can match up with 6-foot-2 Gra­boski,” Orshoski said. “We felt like zone was our best option.”

Gra­boski posted 15 points in Tuesday’s game. Upper San­dusky also received double-digit scor­ing efforts from Amber Cox and Jor­den Born, each with 12.

Orshoski men­tioned a pair of per­for­mances that he thought aided his team in its win Tuesday.

“I thought Jake Turner had some crit­i­cal bas­kets for us when we needed it,” he said. “Makala Daniel really got after it defen­sively on Gra­boski and on the boards as well.”

Belle­vue is now 11–2 over­all this sea­son. Upper San­dusky fell to 12–2.

The Lady Red pulled out a close win in the junior var­sity game, 48–40.

Jes­sica Zeitz paced Belle­vue with 14 points, while Tara Rin­ner fol­lowed with 13. Sarah Bedell chipped in nine points.

Belle­vue will resume its sched­ule next Tues­day with a non-league road game against Galion.

BOXSCORE
Var­sity
Upper San­dusky 47
Savan­nah Piecha 0–2-2, Amber Cox 5–0-12, Alli­son Sny­der 2–2-6, Jor­den Born 6–0-12, Tay­lor Gra­boski 5–5-15. Totals 18–9-47.
Belle­vue 56
Whit­ney Schalk 1–0-2, Han­nah Lilly 3–0-6, Jake Turner 3–0-8, Carly San­toro 10–7-29, Janelle Wat­son 1–1-3, Makala Daniel 2–4-8. Totals 20–12-56.
Score by quar­ter
Upper San­dusky 19 7 5 16 — 47
Belle­vue 20 12 12 12 — 56

Junior Var­sity
Upper San­dusky 40
McKenna Cald­well 2–1-5, Jaime Calvin 3–2-9, Emma Smith 7–1-16, Sarah Rall 1–3-5, Keely Stover 2–0-5. Totals 15–7-40.
Belle­vue 48
Mor­gan Andrews 2–0-6, Han­nah Ruff­ing 2–0-4, Ken­zie McMur­ray 1–0-2, Tara Rin­ner 5–3-13, Jes­sica Zeitz 3–8-14, Sarah Bedell 4–0-9. Totals 17–11-48.
Score by quar­ter
Upper San­dusky 11 9 8 12 — 40
Belle­vue 12 18 8 10 — 48

Posted by Brad Frank on Jan 15 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.