The Bellevue Lady Eagles’ season came to an end on Monday night in their bi-district playoff game against Newcastle.
The state-ranked Lady Cats won 54-20 against the Lady Eagles.
Bellevue knew it had a tough draw. It had just creeped into the fourth and final playoff spot as the team’s up and down district record reflected the overall youthfulness of the roster.
That inexperience caused the team to miss the playoffs the previous season for the first time in many years as the majority of the team were freshman.
A year older, the Lady Eagles played the top teams in the district well in some games, but came up short.
The biggest game was their win against Slidell. With the Lady Greyhounds moving up classifications to 2A, it was a nice memory for this group to get them one last time since Slidell were usually district champs.
Newcastle was a different beast than any other team Bellevue had played in district.
The Lady Cats were massive at almost every position and knew how to use their size advantage well. They had only lost one game all season and are ranked as the second best team in the state in 1A.
The first quarter saw the Lady Eagles break through Newcastle’s full-court press with little struggle and scored two of their three baskets before the defense was set.
The Lady Cats perimeter shooting was not going in and while Bellevue battled hard for rebounds, sometimes Newcastle’s height advantage when going for offensive rebounds allowed for quick put backs.
Newcastle led 13-8, but the Lady Eagles were being scrappy and making the Lady Cats work.
In the second quarter, Newcastle switched its defense to just straight man-to-man defense and Bellevue struggled for the rest of the game. Defenders seemed to stick to Lady Eagle players on the perimeter.
Any room created driving to the basket was closed when tall help defenders came to contest shots.
Bellevue scored only three points in the second and third quarter combined.
Meanwhile, Newcastle seemed to abandon hunting 3-point shots and mostly tried to attack the basket or shoot some open shots right outside the paint.
The Lady Cats led 29-8 at halftime and 37-11 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Lady Eagles executed their offense better in the final period, cutting sharply to the basket for some good looks that went in as they scored nine points.
Newcastle won 54-20.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.