HTC's Vasin Thurman goes for 31 in win over WACO

BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC EDITOR

WAYLAND - It was the Thurman brothers show at the offensive end of the floor in Holy Trinity's 71-48 season opening win over WACO Tuesday.

The Crusaders got 50 from the twins, 31 from Vasin Thurman, 16 in the first half, and 19 from Jason Thurman.

The duo had a nice inside-out game working with Vasin getting all of his points around the basket, while Jason fired in four 3-pointers, three in the first half to keep the WACO defense off balance.

Head Coach John Hellige said Vasin could have easily put up 40 points but came up short on some free throws.

"He was on his way to 40, but he missed about seven free throws," Hellige said. "I don't have a count but I think he had about 15 rebounds too. He just played really well."

But Hellige said he got strong performances from everyone on the floor including some solid minutes for freshman Connor Gehling would finished with four points in his first varsity contest.

"They all played really good. It's a little faster at the varsity level and some of the younger kids aren't use to that yet. Jason had a great game and Mikey DiPrima played well coming off an injury, and then Kadin Medland had a good game too."

Outside of an early 3-0 hole, the Crusaders took the lead at the 3-minute mark and never trailed again opening up leads as big as 23 points toward the end of the first half.

Hellige said he was worried about a little slide coming out of the locker room, but WACO wasn't able to get any traction.

"We were up pretty big at halftime. I was afraid we would have little let down, but I couldn't be happier."

The Crusaders didn't allow a single WACO player in double figures.

DiPrima finished with eight points, six in the first half. Chandler Rung had six on the night, Medland had five and Gehling's four rounded out the scoring for HTC (1-0).

The Crusaders take on Cardinal at home Friday night.