John Bohnenkamp for Pen City Current Sports
FORT MADISON - Mary Kate Bendlage said it felt like she was getting opening-game nervousness during the national anthem before Holy Trinity’s girls basketball team played West Burlington on Thursday night.
Except that it was the 12th game of the season for the Crusaders.
“I was like, ‘Oh, my God, we haven’t played together in two weeks,’” Bendlage said, laughing.
It’s been 13 days since the Crusaders have played a game, since the snow and the cold temperatures of the last week and a half forced four games to be postponed.
Thursday’s game against the Falcons was the first game to be made up, and Holy Trinity showed no ill effects from the layoff, winning 60-15 at Shottenkirk Gym.
“For being off 13 days, I thought we did pretty well,” Holy Trinity coach Tony Johnson said. “Hold them to 15, and scoring 60 without pressing them, that’s pretty good.”
“I thought tonight, when we came out and played, we just picked up where we left off,” said Bendlage, who led the Crusaders with 27 points. “We keyed in on defense, and it really showed. Allowing 15 points over four quarters was pretty good.”
It was the sixth consecutive win for the Crusaders (11-1 overall, 7-1 SEI Superconference South Division), who took a half-game lead over Mediapolis in the division standings.
The Crusaders last played on January 5 at Central Lee. And it wasn’t just the loss of games that concerned Johnson — on days the school was closed, they couldn’t practice.
“They’ve been wanting to play for about a week and a half,” Johnson said. “It was good to get back in the gym.”
“We had some open gyms when we had permission to have them, and a lot of girls showed up,” Bendlage said. “That really showed the dedication we have to this program, and the potential that we have.”
It was a quick start for the Crusaders, who scored four seconds into the game on Teagan Snaadt’s layup. That started an early 13-0 run that included nine points from Bendlage.
“We’ve been working to get a score off the tip all season, but we just haven’t been able to do it,” Johnson said. “That got us off to a good start.”
Holy Trinity led 20-3 at the end of the first quarter, 37-5 at halftime, and 50-8 after three quarters.
“We were trying to keep them in single digits,” Bendlage said. “We’ve been playing so well on defense all season, and we want to keep that going.”
Natalie Randolph had 16 points for the Crusaders. Snaadt had nine, Presley Myers had six, and Ellie Hellman had two.
Taryn Havener led West Burlington (1-11, 1-8) with five points.
Holy Trinity plays host to New London in Friday’s Homecoming game.
“It’s good to play back-to-back, to get back in a rhythm,” Johnson said.
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