Crusaders roll through district quarters

FORT MADISON - John Hellige had to find a balance in how he coached Holy Trinity’s 103-19 win over Tri-County in Monday’s Class 1A boys basketball district quarterfinal at Shottenkirk Gym.

The Crusaders (17-5) hadn’t played since last Tuesday’s 107-46 win over Highland in the regular-season finale, so Hellige wanted to give his starters some work heading into Thursday’s semifinal.

At the same time, there was the fact the Crusaders were playing a team whose lone win of the season came on Saturday in the first round against Seymour.

So Hellige came up with a plan.

“What we did was talk about getting the wins within the win,” Hellige said. “So, let’s have good close-outs, let’s have good box-outs, let’s deflect passes. Let’s rebound, let’s make solid passes, let’s do all of the fundamental things, all of the little wins throughout the game, even though we knew the game wouldn’t be close. We’ve got to keep preparing for tough teams down the road.”

Holy Trinity, which plays host to Moravia (16-4) in Thursday’s 7 p.m. semifinal, had a 30-0 run in the first quarter and led 68-9 at halftime.

“It was a little sloppy, to be honest,” Hellige said. “But it was to be expected, on the other hand. So I think we tried to preach discipline, fundamentals, and I think for the most part it was pretty good for what the game was.”

Hellige played his starters into the third quarter, and was able to get key reserves Nathan Box and Koby Jones into the game for first-half work.

“I thought they played really well,” Hellige said of Box and Jones. “And then in the third quarter, it was like, I wanted to get my starters another solid quarter since we hadn’t played since last Tuesday, and I wanted to be prepared for Thursday. The fourth quarter, I thought the bench did a great job. They played hard, hit some shots, played tough defense. So I think it was pretty much the right balance. I thought I could have subbed a little bit sooner, but we needed to be fine-tuned for Thursday, because we know whoever we’re going to get is going to be an excellent team.”

Luke Hellige led Holy Trinity with 33 points. Conner Gehling had 19 points. Maddox Rung had 13 points. Jones had 12 points, and Layne Rung added 11.

Levi Molyneux led Tri-County (1-23) with 12 points.