In the second meeting between 36th district teams, this one counting for seeding, the Newport Central Catholic girls basketball team swept the regular season series against Bellevue.
The Thoroughbreds won the first one on December 30 in the Stephanie Wilson
Memorial Tournament, 66-46. This time the margin was a bit closer, NewCath
winning 67-54.
NewCath was led by Caroline Eaglin who torched the Tigers with 27 points.
“She’s a phenomenal player. We tried to make her shoot more outside shots this
time instead of letting her drive to the basket,” Tigers coach Tommy Sorrell said. “When everybody tries to help on Caroline, they have other players who can make shots like Brannen and Beck. They have girls who can hit shots and that makes it even tougher when you’re trying to focus, and the others start hitting.”
Six others put points on the board for the ‘Breds. Jaylee Brannen added 13 and
Emma Beck had 10 for the Thoroughbreds.
“We have seven girls that play a lot,” NewCath head coach Dan Albrinck said. “They
all contribute, and they all know that they have to. They did today. Everybody has
games where they’re on or they’re not, but we expect it out of them every game and
the girls did a good job of that.”
Despite an active zone from Bellevue, the Thoroughbreds still hit nine triples.
“Moving the ball. Passing and cutting to the basket. We didn’t make many of our
open shots, but we made enough,” Albrinck said.
It remained close for a lot of the game, until the Thoroughbreds expanded the lead
to double-digits, 32-22, going into halftime.
Their advantage continued to grow in the second half, even leading 51-33 midway
through the third quarter. The Tigers didn’t give up, but instead made a momentum
swinging run, to make it 53-48 with nearly four minutes remaining in the game.
Bellevue just didn’t quite have enough. NewCath answered with a 14-6 run to put the
game away and pick up their third district win.
“I was just proud of how the girls played,” Sorrell said. “The first time we played them was in our holiday tournament and I think we’ve improved a lot since then. We’re playing with more confidence. I’m proud of how hard the girls are playing and how they’re playing as a team.”
This won’t be the last matchup between the Thoroughbreds and Tigers this season.
With NewCath taking the two seed and Bellevue the three seed the two will face off
in the first round of the district tournament.
“Before then, there’s some things we need to work on. Passing, making smart
decisions, and rotating on the defensive end,” Sorrell said.
The Thoroughbreds move to 16-7 and will have a short break as they prepare a home
game on Monday at 7:30 p.m. against St. Ursula Academy (OH).
The Tigers fall to 16-6. Sydni Massey led the way for Bellevue with 16 points. Paulina
Long added 15 and Jaylah Dowell added 10. They will look to bounce back with an
upcoming meeting at Ludlow on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
THOROUGHBREDS 67, TIGERS 54
BELLEVUE — 16-6-18-14 — 54
NEWCATH — 19-13-19-16 — 67
Scoring
BELLEVUE (54) — Massey 16, Long 15, Jaylah Dowell 10, Jayda Dowell 6, MacPherson
4, McCarty 3
NEWCATH (67) — Eaglin 27, Brannen 13, Beck 10, McFarland 9, Albrinck 3, Green 3,
Cole 2
Game Stats
3-Pointers: Bellevue 4, NewCath 9
Free Throws: Bellevue 10/14, NewCath 6/10
Fouls: Bellevue 11, NewCath 18
Records: Bellevue 16-6, NewCath 16-7