John Bohnenkamp for Pen City Current Sports
FORT MADISON - Postseason play means seeing someone new.
It’s why Holy Trinity girls basketball coach Tony Johnson figured it would take a few minutes for his team to figure out English Valleys in Tuesday’s Class 1A regional quarterfinal at Shottenkirk Gym.
Then the Crusaders got going, and picked up their 20th win of the season.
Holy Trinity’s 49-13 win was all about the defense that worked all night, and an offense that got better as the clock kept ticking.
Now the Crusaders (20-2) advance to Friday’s regional semifinal at No. 8 Montezuma (18-4).
Holy Trinity hasn’t seen too many opponents outside the SEI Superconference this season, so Johnson told his team that this game would be like when the Crusaders faced Lone Tree in the Superconference Shootout championship game — take the time to figure out your opponent, and go from there.
Holy Trinity won that game 50-26, and this game was a lot like that one.
“I said the first two minutes are going to be a grind, you’re going to feel them out, you’ve never played them ever,” Johnson said. “It was kind of like the Lone Tree game — feel them out, feel them out, feel them out. Once we got going and doing what we were supposed to do, we were fine.”
It took the Crusaders until the second quarter to get their offense going. They led 9-4 with 5:50 left in the first half, and didn’t score again until Presley Myers’ free throw with 1:30 left.
“I think it was just going to be a grind at first — I didn’t think it would be a nine-point grind for a while,” Johnson said. “But that’s all right. The defense didn’t stop, and that’s what matters.”
“We didn’t know how they were,” senior Natalie Randolph said. “We knew if we came in, played good defense, we would come out good.”
Myers’ free throw started a 7-0 run over those last 90 seconds, and when Randolph scored three quick baskets in the first 90 seconds of the third quarter, Holy Trinity had a 22-4 lead.
“Our defense was good all night, but in the first half we were a little slow on the offense part,” said Randolph, who led the Crusaders with 26 points. “Then we started getting into our plays, running them completely through, and they finally started working.”
Randolph took the game over in the third, scoring 17 of the Crusaders’ 25 points in the quarter. She got most of her points inside, although she hit a 3-pointer with 1:15 left in the third quarter and added a second three 11 seconds into the fourth quarter.
“I think we had a really fast-paced offense today, and my teammates were finding me,” Randolph said. “I was cutting through, and my teammates were really getting good looks for me. And finally some of my outside shots went in tonight, and it was good.”
“She was getting open and people were finding her,” Johnson said. “She’s really good at finding the holes in the defense. Then tonight it was great to see her hit some outside shots.”
English Valleys (14-9) didn’t get into double digits until 1:40 left in the third quarter, when Delaney Hall hit a 3-pointer to get the Bears to within 36-11.
“It’s really hard for the other team to keep wanting to play when you keep choking them down, not letting them score,” Johnson said. “The goal all of the time is keep the ball out of the lane — I’ll give up 28-foot threes, stuff like that, but we do not want the ball to penetrate the lane.”
Mary Kate Bendlage added nine points for the Crusaders. Teagan Snaadt had six and Myers had five.
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