From the opening tipoff to the final buzzer, the Bellevue Wolverines girls basketball team unveiled relentless pressure defense against the Inglemoor Vikings.

The gameplan paid dividends.

The Wolverines outscored the Vikings 23-9 in the first quarter en route to a 67-41 win on Jan. 4 at Bellevue High School. The Wolverines improved their overall record to 11-0 with the victory while Inglemoor dropped to 8-2 with the loss. The full-court pressure and half-court traps are a stable of the Bellevue basketball program.

“We like to make teams uncomfortable. Our goal is to cause chaos in full court and in the half court as much as possible,” Bellevue head coach Leah Krautter said.

Despite the defensive pressure, Inglemoor cut Bellevue’s lead to seven points after senior forward Ifeoma Emeka connected on a three-pointer slicing Bellevue’s lead to 29-22 with 1:51 left in the second period. Bellevue went on a 8-0 run in the final 1:40 of the second quarter, extending their lead to 37-22 at halftime to put the game away. Bellevue was led by Shelby Cansler’s team-high 18 points. Senior Quinessa Caylao-Do scored 10 of her 14 points in the first quarter of play. Cansler said the Wolverines have a deep bench, which allows them to play aggressive on the defensive end of the floor.

“We just feel like we have the speed to keep it up the whole game. Every single person on our team can keep up that pressure. We know we can pressure teams the whole game and slowly wear them down,” Cansler said.

The Vikings are currently in second place in the Class 4A KingCo Division and were a solid test for the Class 3A KingCo first place Wolverines.

“Inglemoor is definitely one of the toughest teams we’ve faced. They have some good athletes for sure and they play hard,” Krautter said.