Falcons hand HTC boys first loss

WEST BURLINGTON – It wasn’t the dramatic last second win that HTC and West Burlington put on last season at the Falcons' gym, but there was a feel here of the top two teams in the area battling it out again.
West Burlington wrapped up the night with a 69-58 win over Holy Trinity in a game that saw conference MVP candidate Luke Hellige put up 37 points for the Crusaders to lead all scorers.
Head Coach John Hellige said he didn’t think the Falcons were submissive to Luke Hellige, allowing him to get points while containing the rest of the offense. It didn’t look that way either as Hellige scored inside and out throughout the game.
“I think they were working pretty hard on Luke,” Hellige said. “He’s very versatile.”
The Falcons had control of the game throughout with the exception of a 2-2 tie to start the game. All until the fourth quarter when the Crusaders wiped out an 11-point Falcon lead to cut the lead to four and had a chance to make it a one possession game.
With 4:10 left in the game, Hellige hit a 3-ball from the right wing of the Crusader offensive set for his 37th point of the game to cut the lead to 56-52.  West Burlington’s Ayden Figuereo missed inside with the Crusaders in a zone defensive set.
Holy Trinity got a look inside, but Kobe Jones missed in heavy traffic. West Burlington would call a timeout off the rebound to set up the final three minutes of play. Nathan Box would foul Quincy Collins on a drive at the other end. Collins would make both freethrows and West Burlington Head Coach Cody Van Fleet would call another :30 timeout to reset the defense.
Jones would score this time as the Falcon defense turned towards doubling up Hellige off the perimeter. At 58-54, West Burlington would get a dagger of sorts when Bo Begner hit from the left wing from three-point range for a 61-54 lead.
HTC would stay in their half-court with two minutes left and Layne Rung, who had struggled from the field most of the night, slashed in from the left baseline and converted a reverse layup that he spun in high off the glass prompting a timeout by John Hellige. Trailing by five with 1:55 left, the Crusaders were looking for another stop, but Adam Sobczak was whistled for a foul. Mason Watkins hit both freethrows for a seven-point lead and Rung would miss in the next possession on a 3-ball. Begner hit another three for a 10-point lead and the Crusaders couldn’t get back in the game.

John Hellige said there is still some growing taking place with the Crusaders.
“We had some guys playing in this game that have three varsity games in them so far this year,” he said.
“But they haven’t played at a speed that a West Burlington or other top teams can play at. For me, it’s just one of those games where we become battle tested. Win, lose, or draw, we learn from it. The kids that didn’t get as much playing time last year really are getting exposed to the cold pool for the first time.”
He said they were expecting the Falcons to get some runs like the 12-2 run in the second quarter, but he said the plan was to “weather the storm”.
“We knew that West Burlington was going to have some runs. Really what our mindset was was to weather the storm. We took a timeout there just to remind them we’re a darn good basketball team, too.”
Depending on the poll, HTC was ranked as high as 5th in Class 1A this week.
Aside from Luke Hellige’s juggernaut of a game, Jones had eight points, Sobczak had five while Rung and Box each added four.
Collins led West Burlington with 23 points 17 in the first half. Watkins had 19 for the Falcons (5-0, 4-0 SEISC-South)
The Crusaders’ game Saturday with Winfield was postponed and they host Van Buren in girls/boys double header.