Crusaders race past Falcons Friday night

HTC's defense smothers West Burlington's Isabella Callison in the third period Friday night with Presley Myers in the background and Teagan Snaadt defending from the side.

Photo by Chuck Vandenberg/PCC

Playing a role

It’s kind of like everyone has a part every game and sometimes that’s different - maybe lock down defense instead of 25 points per game, or maybe it’s scoring 25 points per game.”

Teagan Snaadt, HTC senior guard

 WEST BURLINGTON – The Holy Trinity girls' basketball team stayed perfect on the year with a 63-26 drubbing of SEI Superconference rival West Burlington Friday night at the Falcons’ gym.
Senior Mary Kate Bendlage scored 20 points to lead HTC, but Teagan Snaadt was right behind with 18 and Presley Myers got into double figures as well with 11.
The Lady Crusaders sent a message early that the rebuilding Falcons were outgunned with Bendlage getting 10 of her points in the first five minutes. Snaadt opened the scoring with a 3-ball from the left wing and then Bendlage ripped six straight before West Burlington’s Isabella Callison scored inside for the Falcon’s first bucket.
Snaadt capped the first quarter with a steal at midcourt and layup for a 21-2 lead.
The onslaught continued in the second quarter before HTC Head Coach Tony Johnson began experimenting with his bench as the Crusaders took a 32-5 lead with just over three minutes left in the half.
Senior Natalie Randolph, who’s still working her way back into the offense after sitting her junior year out with a knee injury, chipped in with five points, including a 3-pointer off a Bendlage steal for the 32-5 lead.
West Burlington got things turned around in the third quarter putting up 13 points keeping pace with the Crusaders' 15. But the Falcons managed just four points in the final period as Johnson emptied the bench a couple times getting everyone into the game.
“That’s huge because we have to develop a bench,” Johnson said.
“Reagan’s (Holvoet) out with a concussion, which is horrible. That’s a senior who’s played, but Adalyn (Kruse) has taken her role, but I need to find a couple more guards to give Natalie, Teagan, and Anna a break. We need to get some kind of rotation even if it’s for two or three minutes. If someone steps up, I’ll put them out there.”
Freshman Elizabeth Griffin was one who came in early in the rout. She also finished up the scoring with a bucket in the final minute.
Snaadt said the Crusaders are working with a shallow bench, but the top five or six are in good enough shape to keep up with the pace of the game.
“I love the pace of play. Moving up and down the court is a big thing for us and we’ve been working on that this year,” the senior said.
“When you speed up the game we’re all athletes that have played since sixth grade so we don’t get out of whack a lot.”
But Johnson said he was not unhappy with any part of the Crusaders’ performance Friday night.
“Nothing disappointed me tonight at all,” he said. “We tried some stuff tonight. We played really well Monday, but we didn’t play like we thought we should have Tuesday. We cleaned up a bunch of stuff that last two days.
“It all starts with defense. At times we played decent at Danville, but we got lost a lot trying two or three different defenses. They wanted to make up for not playing well there tonight.”
HTC is 3-0 overall and 2-0 in SEI Superconference play. They had to stay in the game the full four quarters in a 48-42 win over Danville Tuesday.
Johnson said he’s also seeing progress from sophomore Myers who had three blocks in Friday’s game.
“People forget she’s just a sophomore. Everyone sees her and says oh my gosh she’s 25 and been playing forever, but she’s a 15-year old sophomore.”
Kruse has been a nice break for Myers inside playing solid defense and is starting to work her way into the offense. She also gives the Crusaders another quick foot in transition.
Johnson said he wants the Crusaders to dictate pace in every game.
“As much as possible we want to dictate everything. After the first quarter, we geared it down and saved their legs, but I want to go up and down.”
Snaadt admits the pace of the first three games has been tiring, but she’s ready for the challenge.
“I definitely get tired, but I just try to push myself through and stay as conditioned as I can,” she said.
“We always look for each other and we judge the flow of the game. If we’re feeling we can hit a shot we’ll shoot it, but if there’s an opportunity to go inside we’ll do that. It’s kind of like everyone has a part every game and sometimes that’s different - maybe lock down defense instead of 25 points per game, or maybe it’s scoring 25 points per game.”