FORT MADISON - Holy Trinity’s boys basketball team can put up the points.
The Crusaders showed in Monday’s season opener that they can defend as well.
Holy Trinity locked down WACO after an early flurry and rolled to a 57-35 win at Shottenkirk Gym.
The Crusaders held the Warriors scoreless for a six-minute stretch of the first half, turning a one-point lead into a 23-10 margin, and then controlled WACO for the rest of the game.
“Just really tough, gritty defense,” Holy Trinity coach John Hellige said. “I thought we were going to have that, but you never know until the ball gets tipped up in the air and you play a real game.”
WACO took an early 6-0 lead on 3-pointers from Isaac Rich and Holden Hughes, but didn’t have another 3-pointer until 2 ½ minutes into the third quarter.
It was 11-10 with 2:10 remaining in the first quarter, and WACO didn’t score again until Clayton Miller’s drive to the basket with 4:10 left in the second quarter. Holy Trinity led 29-15 at halftime and wasn’t going to be threatened in the second half.
“They hit those two quick threes right off the bat, and then I think we held them to, maybe, nine points the rest of the half or something like that,” Hellige said. “That’s pretty good defense.”
The Crusaders showed they could be a balanced scoring team as well. Luke Hellige, Holy Trinity’s leading scorer at 23.9 points per game last season, had 16 points, but only six of those came in the first half.
“I was telling the boys in the locker room that Luke and I had a discussion a couple weeks ago, and I said, ‘You know, you averaged close to 25 (points) last year. What do you think you're going to get this year?’” John Hellige said. “And he said, ‘Dad, I don't care how many points I score, I want to win games.’ And yeah, I think you saw that tonight.”
Adam Sobczak, who led the state with 216 assists last season, hit two 3-pointers early in the first half on his way to a 12-point night. Layne Rung had 11 points, and Koby Jones had nine.
“It’s super important that we get these guys scoring points,” Hellige said. “The other guys kind of fed off the focus on Luke and finished shots. So if we can do that, we're going to be a tough team to beat.”
Christian Stacy led WACO with 10 points.
The Crusaders are back on their home court on Tuesday night against SEI Superconference South Division rival Central Lee.
“We’ll be ready to play tomorrow night,” Hellige said. “I just kind of look at it as we've kind of got some jitters out tonight. All eyes were on us tonight, from an in-house or video perspective, but we’ll be ready to go tomorrow night.”
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here