NEW WASHINGTON –Bellevue won the Northern Ohio League girls basketball title this season. But the Lady Red didn’t show Clear Fork anything the Lady Colts haven’t already seen this season.
Despite a 55-49 loss Thursday night in a Division II district semifinal game, Clear Fork battled Bellevue evenly all night – save for a two-minute stretch of the third quarter. That’s when the Lady Red ran off a 14-2 run, including 10 unanswered, with four different Lady Colts players scoring.
That run came with Bellevue (20-4) on top 32-30, and gave the Lady Red, a 46-32 lead they never surrendered. Clear Fork had only one FG in the final 3:52 of the period, missing four FG tries and committing two turnovers.
Take away the horrific third quarter, the Lady Colts (13-10) actually outscored Bellevue, 39-35.
“When you look at some (sectional tournament) draws, it seemed like the OCC got lower seeds. But we know the OCC was a challenging regular season,” Clear Fork coach Heidi Roush said.
“That was the best effort I have seen from my team this whole season,” Roush said. “We haven’t played hard in every minute of a game this season. The girls really stepped up tonight. I am proud of the way my team played tonight.”
The Lady Colts had great success to go with their great effort, especially in the first half. The Colts led most of the first quarter before settling for a 13-13 tie after eight minutes. Bellevue led 26-23 at the half, despite Clear Fork limiting the Lady Red to just nine of 22 shooting in the half.
“Our team played hard and deserved to get a win. But when you have the little lapses like we did in the third quarter, it makes it hard to come back,” Roush said.
“Our seniors (Macey Ruhl, Ashley Bisel, Mackenzi Golden, Aubrey Pipes, Shelby Pipes, Jenna Schaefer and Mayakla Arnold) set the bar high. I want the younger players to remember how this loss feels,” Roush said.
Junior Erika Farst led Clear Fork with 16 points. Junior Morgan Bailey had 12. Swihart finished with nine and junior Mattie VanOrman added eight.
Santaro led Bellevue with 19 points, six below her seasonal average. Senior Janelle Watson finished with 12.
Clear Fork shot 38 percent from the field (17 of 45) and 70 percent from the line (14 of 20). Bellevue shot 39 percent from the floor (18 of 46) and 17 of 30 at the line (57 percent). Bellevue had a 41-26 edge in rebounding and committed two more turnovers than the Lady Colts.
