BELLEVUE, Ohio — The gym was nearly empty and the nets already cut from the rims by the time Shelby coach Natalie Lantz emerged from the visitor’s locker room Saturday afternoon at Bellevue High School.
The Lady Red had clinched a share of the final Northern Ohio League championship with a 60-51 win over the Whippets — handing co-champ Shelby its first NOL loss in the process — and Lantz wasn’t especially pleased.
Hence the longer-than-normal postgame discussion.
“It’s almost like we just settled tonight and that’s really the first time against a good team this season that we’ve done that,” Lantz said. “I feel like our bunch was very into it, but on the floor I don’t feel like we really had somebody step up and take control of the game.
“It’s not that we didn’t play hard, but I don’t feel like we completely played cohesive and together.”
Third-Quarter Blues: The Whippets (20-2, 11-1) led 28-27 at the half, but went more than six minutes without a basket in the third. Bellevue (18-4, 11-1) scored the first 13 points of the period before Kennadie Goth stopped the bleeding with a 3-pointer with 1:52 to play. By that time, the Lady Red held a 40-31 lead.
“We told them these first four minutes (of the third quarter) have to be your minutes,” Bellevue coach Kory Santoro said. “We came out and played great defense and got after it.
“There wasn’t anything magical that we said. We just told them to get refocused and play defense like we can.”
Payton Vogel scored nine of her 14 points in the third quarter for the Lady Red (18-4, 11-1).
“She came out and took over,” Santoro said. “We kept telling her we need to attack the basket. She was getting to the rim, getting fouled and hitting layups. She played huge for us in that third quarter.”
Shelby trailed 44-33 heading to the fourth, but opened the final quarter on a 7-2 run and trimmed Bellevue’s advantage to 46-40 on a Jackie Garrett trey with 4:23 remaining. That is as close as the Whippets would get, however, as the Lady Red milked the clock and hit 10 of 14 free throws down the stretch.
“We’re pretty good in our flex offense. We feel we’re pretty good at setting good screens and getting girls open,” Santoro said. “We weren’t necessarily trying to stall it, but we were looking for layups.
“The girls did a good job of moving the ball around and I think Shelby got tired there and had to start fouling.”
Shelby’s lack of urgency at the defensive end had Lantz scratching her head.
“In the fourth quarter we’re down and we’re playing 10 feet off our girl instead of playing pressure defense and trying to trap and get the ball,” Lantz said. “It was all little mental breakdowns. We weren’t playing to win. We were being complacent and you can’t do that against a good team.
“We’ve got to fight harder. When you want to win a ball game, you have to earn it on every possession.”
Leaders: Maddie Fidler led the Whippets with 16 points. Bailey Walter added 14, while Goth had 11.
Jenna Strayer topped Bellevue with 16 points, half of which came in the first quarter as the Lady Red bolted to a 17-9 lead. Vogel had 14, while Casey Santoro added 13.
Tournament Trail: Both Shelby and Bellevue begin tournament play in the rugged Willard district on Feb. 25. The top-seeded Whippets will play either Vermilion or Sandusky Perkins at 6:15 p.m. at Monroeville while the No. 3 Lady Red will meet either Lexington or Tiffin Columbian at 6:15 at Bucyrus.
“I know this group of kids. This one hurt them, but they will bounce back,” Lantz said. “Going 20-2 is nothing to hang their heads about. It’s a 20-win regular season. We’re still NOL champs and I’m very proud of the girls for the season they’ve had.
“This is something we need to learn from. We’ve got to take steps forward from today.”
