West Burlington hands Crusaders eighth straight loss

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BY CHUCK VANDENBERG

PCC EDITOR

FORT MADISON - A sluggish second quarter from the field is what separated Holy Trinity from an upset bid of West Burlington Tuesday night.

The Crusaders scored just four points and took just three shots in the second quarter as West Burlington ran away with a 56-42 win at Shottenkirk Gymnasium.

"That's a really good West Burlington team, and really there's no such thing as a moral victory, but I kinda felt like we played a pretty good game tonight," head coach John Hellige.

HTC junior Quentin Schneider gets a shot blocked from behind by Reece Richards (42) during third quarter action Tuesday night. Photo by Chuck Vandenberg/PCC

Holy Trinity, which falls to 0-8 on the season, stayed within two points of the Falcons most of the way through the first period until junior Matt Hellige fouled West Burlington's Marvion Jackson under the hoop. The 6'5" sophomore buried both from the free throw stripe with :20 left in the period.

The Crusaders would miss three shots on the next trip down the floor and trailed 13-17 at the end of one.

Kyle Bredemeyer hit a bucket a minute into the second period to keep the deficit at four, but Jonah Marlow and Colton Sherwood would hit back-to-back 3-balls from the Falcons to take a 10 point lead. Fehseke would counter with a bucket at the 2:48 mark, but the two teams would then combine for six turnovers in the final two minutes.

Jackson would score on a drop-step that got around HTC's Matt Hellige in the paint. Quentin Schneider would then go full court on the inbounds and get an open layup that rolled off the back of the rim as time expired in the first half with the Crusaders down 17-27.

Out of the break, Schneider would put a foul on the Falcon's Tanner Snodgrass who would make the front end of the one-and-one, but miss the second. Holy Trinity would commit two turnovers on their next two possessions and Jackson would capitalize with buckets out of the next two West Burlington offensive sets. John Hellige would call for a full time out, and out of the break Sherwood hit another long-ball from the top of the key to open up a 35-17 advantage,

HTC senior Brant Holtkamp would hit a three from the right baseline at the 5:33 mark that would set off a 10-0 run where Hellige would get an inside bucket sliding around Jackson in the lane, Holtkamp would hit a runner in transition and Fehseke would spot up from the left wing to close the gap back to eight 27-35.

The Falcons' senior Tanner Snodgrass broke the run with a jumper from about 12 feet. Fehseke would miss on the next possession, but the Crusaders would force a turnover and Hellige would score again moving against the bigger Jackson to cut the lead again to eight at 29-37. Snodgrass would score again in transition and Holtkamp and Schneider would miss in the next two trips down to lead HTC down by 10 at the end of three.

West Burlington came out hot in the third quarter outscoring the Crusaders 10-5 behind eight straight from sophomore Darian Johnson to put the Falcons up by 15 34-49 and HTC wouldn't be able to cut into the lead. HTC did put together an 8-1 run after a Blake Crabtree 3-ball in front of the Holy Trinity faithful, but the Falcons would convert six straight free throws as Holy Trinity went into hack-a-Falcon to try get some possessions.

Sherwood would bury two freebies after being fouled by Crabtree to finish the scoring at 56-42.

Matt Hellige was in double figures for the first time in three games with 13 points on the night. Head coach John Hellige said he's been looking for more from his post.

"I challenged him during a time out. I'm like 'Where's the Matt from last year? We really need you to look at the basket and look to score and he took the challenge and scored better from that. We came out of the gate with such fierce competition and you go against some of these teams that have a big and you get a couple shots blocked it makes you tend to second guess yourself and wanna put in your pocket. We have to have Matt want to continue to attack the basket even though he's undersized."

He said it's been tough to Fehseke is struggling to find the bottom of the basket.

"They've been really playing red defense on him and he's facing some tough competition and they know he's a shooter. Sometimes good shooters just need to see the ball in the bottom of the basket to get going."

Fehseke finished with eight points on the night. The junior is averaging right at 10 points per game and finished last year at 13 points per contest. Adam Rauenbueler also had eight. Schneider finished with five, while Crabtree and Holtkamp each had three and Bredemeyer finished with two.

The Crusaders travel to Cardinal to wrap up the first half of the season before the holiday break on Friday night.

West Burlington's Marvion Jackson puts up a shot over HTC post Matt Hellige (33). The Falcons downed HTC 56-42. Photo by Chuck Vandenberg/PCC

basketball, boys, crusaders, Falcons, fort madison, Holy Trinity Catholic, Pen City Current, West Burlington

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