BOYS BASKETBALL: Roth's 3-pointer keys Bellevue's win over Fostoria

BELLEVUE — In a tie game to open the fourth quarter, six different players scrambled for and got a piece of a loose ball before Bellevue’s Curt Watson bulled his way through for a rebound and fired a cross-court pass to teammate Jeff Roth.

Roth ended the wild sequence with a 3-pointer to give Bellevue a 37-34 lead to jump-start a big fourth quarter for the Redmen in a 55-48 Northern Ohio League victory against Fostoria on Thursday night at Bellevue High School.

Watson, who finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds on 6 of 10 shooting, also got a bucket and a foul call on a spinning drive to the basket that finished with an off-balance layup. Just less than three minutes later, the senior caught an alley-oop from Jeff Sears and laid it in for another key basket.

With the Redmen tied with Norwalk (10-4, 7-2) atop the league with five games remaining, it is going to take efforts like Watson and his teammates put forth the rest of the way for Bellevue to have a shot at an 18th NOL championship, including the first since 1997-98.

“It’s going to have to be a team effort. Everyone is going to have to make plays like that every time,” Watson said. 

“We sense it a little bit that we’re sort of close, but we still have a lot of tough games left to play. Pretty much everyone left on the schedule in the league will be a tough game.”

Bellevue converted just three field goals in a 21-point fourth quarter, but the league leaders in free throw shooting came up big again in shooting 19 of 20 at the foul line for the game. Senior guard Cody Ruhlman led that effort with a 9 of 9 performance as he scored 15 points.

“It’s something that has been a strength of our team,” Bellevue coach Mike Raifsnider said. “We do a good job of getting the ball into the hands of our best free-throw shooters, and those guys step up at crunch time and knock them down. Tonight was no exception, and that’s how you win close ball games.”

Fostoria managed to take a 38-37 lead with 3:48 left in the game, but Bellevue made it’s move in putting together an 8-0 run over the next two minutes to take a 45-38 lead with 1:32 left. Ruhlman hit four foul shots during the run for Bellevue while Watson added two and Ed Haynes scored a basket.

It was a consistent struggle throughout the game for the Bellevue offense, as it had almost as many turnovers (13) as field goals (16).

“It’s one of those weeknight situations that gets you out of your game a little bit,” Raifsnider said. “It was just one of those nights, but good teams have to find a way to win. It wasn’t a thing of beauty, but we found a way to win with our defense, and that’s what has to win games for us.”

Roth had a game-high 18 points for Bellevue on a night where just five players scored.

“We talk all the time. We just want to be able to score one more point than the other team,” Raifsnider said. “That’s what we were able to do here tonight. We’re just trying to find a way to win games.”

Bellevue travels to Upper Sandusky (2-12, 0-9) Saturday.