No. 12 Lady Falcons roll past HTC

BY JOHN BOHNENKAMP
PCC SPORTS

WEST BURLINGTON - Every pass from the Holy Trinity girls basketball team seemed to find the hands from someone from West Burlington.
Every rebound seemed to go to the Falcons.
Every time West Burlington’s Sydney Marlow got near the basket, it seemed like she would score.
It was that kind of night for the Crusaders, who lost 82-35 on Friday night.
It was a game that quickly got away from Holy Trinity (4-5). The Crusaders trailed 14-4 four minutes in before the Falcons (7-1), who are ranked No. 12 in Class 3A, went on a 16-4 run to close the first quarter.
“We talked before the game about staying close, making a run when we got a chance,” Holy Trinity coach Tony Johnson said. “We talked about not getting down 12-0 or 14-2, and then we did get down by that much.”
A lot of that had to do with Marlow, who broke West Burlington’s 5-on-5 scoring record with 39 points while adding 10 rebounds. She scored the first 12 points of the game, and had 22 at the end of the first quarter.
Marlow finished the game 14-of-25 from the field.
“I looked at her stats and she was shooting 48 percent for the season, and I told the girls if she’s shooting 48 percent she’s driving the ball,” Johnson said. “That, and her free-throw percentage, said she was driving the ball to the basket a lot. That’s what she did.”
The Crusaders also struggled with turnovers — 10 in the first six minutes. West Burlington had 21 steals — Marlow had eight of those. The Falcons also had 36 rebounds.
“They’re a good team,” Johnson said. “They’re very intense on defense, and we didn’t rebound worth a heck tonight.
“That’s an effort thing. They out-efforted us and outhustled us tonight.”
West Burlington led 52-22 at halftime, and most of the second half was played with a running clock. Holy Trinity had just two third-quarter points.
“We just didn’t match their intensity,” Johnson said.
Claire Pothitakis and Kassi Randolph each had 10 points for the Crusaders.
Holy Trinity plays host to Cardinal on Tuesday and plays at Central Lee on Friday.
“This is a good building block for the rest of the year, because (West Burlington) is probably one of the two best teams in the (SEI Superconference),” Johnson said. “We can learn from this.”