Crusaders get aggressive in win over VB

FORT MADISON – The Holy Trinity boys basketball team may have been feeling the effects of a 9-point loss to West Burlington Friday night in the first half Tuesday night against Van Buren.
But a halftime chat about aggressive play pushed the button HTC needed to walk away with an 86-51 win over the Warriors in a SEI Superconference South division matchup at Shottenkirk gymnasium.
The Crusaders actually trailed  24-23 about three minutes into the second quarter when the Warriors’ Will Cocherell converted a 3-point play in transition. The Crusaders’ Luke Hellige would bury a 3-ball enroute to his 33 points on the night to give HTC a 26-24 lead they would never relinquish.
Koby Jones, playing on a gimpy ankle, scored six straight in an eight-shot run by the Crusaders while holding the Warriors to just one shot from the field, a Cocherell jumper, to lead 32-28 with 1:38 left in the half. Hellige would score the final four points of the half for a 36-28 lead at the break.
That was as close as Van Buren would be the rest of the night as Head Coach John Hellige asked the Crusaders to push the pace in the second half.
“We talked at halftime about picking up our level of aggressiveness and pushing transition. That was the big thing. It was hard in that first quarter with all the fouls called to try to play aggressive,” he said “So we just reminded them to play with their feet, tip passes, and get out and run a bit. Play free but don’t turn the ball over. Adam did a great job of controlling that in the second half and Jay (Ellison) brought some energy.”
There were 16 fouls called in the first half, 12 on the Crusaders, and Van Buren was scorching from the freethrow line, hitting all 11 of their freethrows. Holy Trinity got to the freethrow line just twice, with Hellige hitting two in the final minute of the first half.
“We can’t control everything, but if we play hard and play aggressive, good things are going to happen. I think it’s getting us battled tested for games down the road. You’re going to face adversity and it’s all in how resilient you can be,” John Hellige said.
“I thought the kids played a great second half.”

Part of that second half surge was the play of junior forward Corbin Van Niewaal, who’s the first man off the bench for Coach Hellige.
“He’s long and brings a nice dimension and a spark off the bench,” Hellige said.
Van Niewaal put in a season-high 12 points, 10 in the second half, giving Jones a break. Van Niewaal got all 10 points off boards under the basket and looked confident wherever he had the ball.
“I don’t look to score that much. I look to get rebounds and put it back up when I can,” he said, relishing his role off the bench.
“I’m fine with that. Whatever helps our team win. Koby was a little off with his ankle, and I was able to fill his spot to make up those offensive boards and put up some shots. I’ve been playing more minutes and (Coach) was telling me as things move forward, we’ll see how things work out.”
The Crusaders would open up leads as big as 21 in the 3^rd quarter and then coasted to the win with the entire bench getting in for the final 2.5 minutes.
Hellige’s 33 sets him at just under 26 points per game to lead HTC. He also has 5.8 board per game. Jones is leading Holy Trinity with six boards per game. He had 14 in Tuesday night’s win. Layne Rung heated up in the second half as well and finished with 14 points.
Cocherell had 16 to lead Van Buren (2-5, 1-4), but was held to just three second-half points.
Holy Trinity (4-1, 3-1) travel to SEISC front-runner Burlington Notre Dame (5-0, 4-0) on Friday night.