John Bohnenkamp for Pen City Current Sports
FORT MADISON - The seventh consecutive win for Holy Trinity’s girls basketball team had some rough spots in it, but the Crusaders still prevailed.
The 65-22 win over New London on Friday night wasn’t a work of art, but coach Tony Johnson kind of had that feeling it wouldn’t be, considering that a.) the Crusaders were playing on back-to-back nights and b.) before that, they hadn’t played for 13 days.
“We’re still knocking the rust off that 13-day hiatus,” Johnson said. “We need to get back into basketball shape, we’re still not in the best shape yet.”
“I don’t think anyone is in their best shape right now, for not playing that long,” said senior Natalie Randolph.
Holy Trinity (12-1 overall, 8-1 SEI Superconference South Division) was never threatened in the game — the Crusaders opened the game with a 16-5 run, led 35-13 at halftime, and went on a 23-0 run in the third and fourth quarters. But it wasn’t a crisp win, especially defensively.
“I think we were overplaying at the beginning,” Randolph said. “The second half, we really tried to pack the lane, and instead of going for steals, try to bait them a little bit. And I thought we played better in the second half.”
“We were getting the shots we wanted,” Johnson said. “The defense got a little out of whack — we were overplaying a little too much tonight. We were trying to steal every pass in the gym. Sometimes you can’t do that. But it’s nothing we can’t clean up. As long as the effort is there, we’ll be fine.”
Holy Trinity held New London (1-14, 1-9) to nine second-half points, with six of those coming in the first five minutes of the half.
“We talked about it at halftime,” Johnson said. “We take a lot of pride in our defense. They like to shut people down, keep them to single-digit quarters. We’ve been working hard at that, and I think it will get better as we get back in shape.”
There was plenty of scoring to go around for the Crusaders. Mary Kate Bendlage led with 20 points, while Randolph and Teagan Snaadt each added 15 points. Presley Myers had eight points.
“That’s what we’re looking for,” Johnson said. “MK can get her 20 every night, but we need one or two others to get 15. That makes us a hard offense to stop.”
“Having balanced scoring is amazing,” Randolph said. “If someone is having an off night, that means someone else can pick them up. It’s good to have different people who can do great things.”
The Crusaders get three games next week as they try to recover the rhythm of the season.
“We’ve been wanting games to go on,” Randolph said. “We’re like, ‘Please don’t get canceled.’ But I’d say we’re getting back to the way we’ve been playing.”
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