Crusaders roll over Highland 74-24

Junior Conner Gehling drives in the second quarter against a Highland defender. Gehling finished with eight points as the Crusaders rolled behind solid perimeter shooting with 11 3-pointers.

Photo by Chuck Vandenberg/PCC

CRUSADERS ROUT

We've seen them shoot like this all summer and all year in practice. We knew the lid would come off at some point and this was a good game to just play relaxed basketball.”

John Hellige, HTC Head Coach

FORT MADISON - It really was just a little over two minutes of competitive  basketball Monday night as the HTC Crusaders rolled to a 74-24 win over visiting Highland.

Holy Trinity got its first win in a big way led by Luke Hellige, who finished with a game-high 26 points in the win. He had 22 in the first half, including five 3-pointers.

"We've seen them shoot like this all summer and all year in practice. We knew the lid would come off at some point and this was a good game to just play relaxed basketball," Head Coach John Hellige said.

Holy Trinity had 11- 3-pointers on the night with freshman Layne Rung hitting on four attempts and Maddux Rung converting two.

The Crusaders got control of the game about three minutes into the first quarter when Hellige scored inside for a 7-6 lead, sparking a 21-2 run leading to a 28-8 first quarter lead.

Hellige had 13 in the first quarter alone.

The Crusaders defense didn't give up a single point in the second quarter rushing out to a 50-8 lead.

"We had some high intensity on defense, but I thought our offense did a really nice job of moving the ball and letting things come to us and playing loose," John Hellige said.

We came out just a little clunky in the third. We were hoping not to do that. I felt the starters closed that period well and then we got a chance to let those guys that work hard in practice every day get some time on the floor."

Being up by 42 at the half, Holy Trinity came out a little sloppy to open the second half, missing their first three shots, but Luke Hellige again got things turned around about three minutes into the third period with a bucket off a rebound inside.

Highland scored twice to cut the lead to 50-12 before Hellig's bucket, but then were held to just one point the rest of the quarter and trailed 62-13, prompting John Hellige to dump the bench.

Layne Rung had 14 points and Maddux Rung finished in double figures with 10. Hellige also had 12 rebounds to lead Holy Trinity.

Connor Gehling finished with eight points and Brayton Schneider had six.

The Crusaders (1-2) host Mediapolis (1-1) Tuesday night before traveling to New London on Friday night.