Crusaders roll Fairfield as season winds down

FORT MADISON - John Hellige reminded his Holy Trinity boys basketball team of the calendar of the season before Tuesday’s game against Fairfield at Shottenkirk Gym.
“What I told the boys is this was game 19, two more to go after this one,” Hellige said after the Crusaders’ 64-26 win.”Wanted them to play hard, play for each other, play for the school, play for the program. At this point in the season, it can't be the coaches yelling at you to play hard. It’s got to come from within.
“You’ve got to find that inner strength.”
The Crusaders (12-7) took the advice to heart, dominating the Trojans (2-14) from the start. Holy Trinity led 15-0 after the first six minutes, 25-2 with 6:07 left in the first half, and 34-10 at halftime.
“I think, for the most part, they played hard the whole game, and that helped us get off to a good start,” Hellige said. “We didn’t rest after we got off to that good start.”
Hellige thought back to the 57-42 win over Fort Madison on January 17, when the Crusaders led by 24 points at halftime, then were outscored 25-16 in the second half.
“Similar situation — we got off to a great start against them, then in the second half we didn’t play as well,” Hellige said. “But that was the fourth game we played that week. This is the first game of our week, so we really emphasized at halftime about playing hard the entire game.”

The Crusaders extended the lead to 54-19 at the end of the third quarter, meaning there was a running clock for the fourth quarter under the IHSAA’s 35-point rule.
Five Crusaders scored in double figures. Corbin Van Niewaal led them with 19 points. Layne Rung, Jack Ragar and Jay Ellison each had 11 points, and Graeme Meredith added 10.
Van Niewaal had two 3-pointers in the first two minutes to get his game going.
“He’s really got this attack mentality,” Hellige said. “And, you know, he's such a nice kid. He even asked me one time going down the sideline., ‘Am I shooting too much’? And I was like, ‘No, we need you. What you're doing is wonderful. Keep scoring, keep attacking.’ We want him to be another double-figure scorer in our lineup.”
Holy Trinity plays host to Columbus in the Southeast Iowa Super Conference Shootout on Friday. The game will be the second of a doubleheader at HTC — Danville plays Wapello at 6 p.m.
The Crusaders then close the regular season with a February 9 home game against Clark County (Mo.).
“I think there's still some things we can improve upon,” Hellige said. “You know, at times we have defensive breakdowns where guys just relax, might get face cut, might get beat off the bounce. So we’ve got to learn that we have got to play intense all the time, the whole 35-second possession, and then we’ve just got to clean up a little bit offensively, some of the silly turnovers,, forcing passes, just trying to do a little bit too much. We just have to continue to try to play for the name on the front of the jersey.”