HTC girls get second win a row

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BY CHUCK VANDENBERG

PCC EDITOR

FORT MADISON - A scoreless stretch of about 11 minutes by Burlington Notre Dame gave Holy Trinity Catholic their second straight win 69-25 over the Nikes to highlight girls high school basketball action Friday night.

Junior Taylor Boeding led the Crusaders with 18 points including eight in the third period. Senior Brett Schneider, who was coming off a career night on Tuesday when she scored a school-record 37 points against New London, fired in 17 points for HTC.

The Crusaders jumped out to a quick 17-9 first quarter lead highlighted by Schneider's seven. Notre Dame held a very early 2-1 lead when sophomore Taylor Ackerman hit for the Nikes. It would be Notre Dame's only lead of the game.

Schneider who scored mostly in transition again, gave the Crusaders the lead with a layup with 4:46 left in the first period. The Nikes committed three straight turnovers before Boeding hit on one of her four 3-pointers on the night to put HTC up 6-2.

"She was due for a good game,' Head Coach Tony Johnson said. "She had been struggling before the break, but it was good to see her break out of that. Hopefully she can continue with that."

Johnson employed a trap zone press for most of the game to put pressure on the Nike's young squad. Notre Dame Head Coach Jim Myers starts four sophomores and one senior, Hayley Blythe. Blythe converted a 3-pointer with :43 left in the first period to cut the lead to 16-9, but the Nikes wouldn't score again until the 5:46 mark in the third period.

The Crusaders forced eight turnovers in the second period in the middle of a 13-0 run that ended when sophomore Hope Ward connected on two free throws following a foul by HTC's junior Eryn Anderson, to make it 29-11. Schneider and junior Emily Box converted back-to-back buckets for the Crusaders and then Sam Hoenig hit on a three to force the Nikes into a timeout down 38-13. Boeding then scored eight of the next 10 HTC points to push the lead to 48-15 at the end of the third period.

Johnson kept the pressure on with the zone full court press, while the Crusaders outscored the Nikes 19-10 in the last period to put the game away.

"The girls have adjusted well since the break," Johnson said. "We put in a ton of adjustments and we were able to work on those over Christmas so that helped, and everyone got reinvigorated over the break after the volleyball grind."

Box finished with 10 points for HTC while Ashlynn Haas and Madison Mohrfeld each put in seven. Avery Hopper scored four points and Sam Hoenig and Anderson each put in three for the Crusaders.

Johnson said he's starting to see some of the early season mistakes dwindling for Holy Trinity.

"Our offense is under control now. They've figured out that just because the other team wants to speed you up, going faster doesn't always create better decisions," Johnson said.

"The ball movement was great tonight. We got it in where we wanted to and then got it back out where we had some shots. There are lot of times where we come down going 100 mph with our hair on fire, and I don't know what they were going to do the ball."

HTC is within one game now of .500 at 5-6 on the season and play host to Van Buren on Tuesday night at Shottenkirk gymnasium in Fort Madison.

Emily Box goes up for one of her 10 points on the night as the Crusaders downed Burlington Notre Dame at home. Photo by Chuck Vandenberg/PCC

Holy Trinity's Eryn Anderson drives the lane in Friday's 69-25 win over Burlington Notre Dame. Photo by Chuck Vandenberg/PCC

 

Junior Taylor Boeding goes up for a layup in transition against Notre Dame Friday. Photo by Chuck Vandenberg/PCC

 

basketball, crusaders, fort madison, girls, holy trinity, htc, Notre Dame, Pen City Current, varsity

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