Crusaders shake off slow start in win over New London

NEW LONDON — The first-half stagnation was motivation for the second-half fury.

Holy Trinity’s boys basketball team trailed New London by six points at halftime of Friday’s SEI Superconference South Division game.

Which really stands out considering the Crusaders won 74-44.

Holy Trinity (3-2 overall, 2-2 division) opened the second half by scoring the first 11 points, igniting a 22-3 run that rattled the Tigers (1-3, 1-3).

“We talked at halftime about coming out, playing hard defense, have our defense create our offense for us,” Holy Trinity coach John Hellige said. “Our half-court sets just weren’t really working.

“The second half we picked up our defense. That got our transition game going, got some confidence going in some kids that haven’t hit many shots this year. And once that got going, we had that confidence and swagger. The heavens unleashed, and we went to town.”

The Crusaders never let up. New London was within 56-41 with four minutes to play, but Holy Trinity closed the game with a 18-3 run.

“I feel like we’re a second-half team now, and we need to figure out how to be a first-half team, too,” said senior Conner Gehling, who led the Crusaders with 29 points, 21 of those coming in the second half. “I just think our halftime attitude was that we needed to improve, we needed to go out with more energy. We have to keep that up the whole game.”

The Crusaders were coming off back-to-back losses that came down to one possession late. They lost 59-58 to West Burlington on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer last Friday, then fell 59-55 in overtime to Mediapolis on Tuesday.

“The thing we talked about from Tuesday was we just need to be better,” Hellige said. “There may be a call here or a call there, a turnover here or a turnover there. But at the end of the day we have to be four, five, six possessions better than the team we play to make sure we’re not in position to be in a one-possession game at the end of the day. Two of our first five games have come down to one possession, and we lost them both.”

“We all thought we had the game against Mepo, and we have the mindset that we can beat any team in the league,” Gehling said. “We’ve got to keep this up, keep it rolling.”

It was a season-high in points for Gehling, who was consistently attacking the basket in the second half.

“Our interior passing was really good,” Gehling said. “They got some really good passes to me and that allowed me to finish well. I also had more energy. The first four games have been tough for me. It’s my senior year, and I haven’t played like I should.”

“He’s been a little impatient,” Hellige said. “But we had all of the confidence in him. He’s had three great years for us. We knew he was going to get going. Not a better night to get going than a Friday night in New London.”

Luke Hellige had 22 points for the Crusaders. Layne Rung added 12.