DONNELLSON — It was all about the defense, Central Lee boys basketball coach Jonny Swanson said after Tuesday’s 43-39 win over Holy Trinity in the season opener for both teams.
The Hawks held the Crusaders to just three points in the first quarter, kept them without a field goal until early in the second quarter, then used an 11-0 run late in the third quarter to take a lead they wouldn’t surrender.
“That’s probably the best team defense we’ve played, way better than any team defense we played in a single game last season,” Swanson said. “We gave up three points in that first quarter, all on free throws, and that’s exactly what we wanted to do. We’ve been stressing team defense and setting the tone early.”
Both teams, though, had problems scoring, which led to the close finish. Holy Trinity got within two points three times in the last 35 seconds, but couldn’t get any closer.
“I think, more than anything, we just really struggled tonight to find the bottom of the rim,” Holy Trinity coach John Hellige said. “I thought our defense was really outstanding to hold them to 41 points. We’re going to be in every game if we hold everybody to 41 points. But getting 37 points, it’s just really tough to win. You have to be practically perfect to win a game with that many points.”
Freshman Jack Ragar led Holy Trinity with 18 points, and senior Layne Rung added 11.
“There are guys that are put in positions where they need to score,” Hellige said. “I think tonight that comes with the realization that, ‘Hey, I’ve got to go score.’ And sometimes it takes a loss like this to figure out what they have to do individually to help the team. And that's a bigger role than what they played last year.”
Will Hayes led Central Lee with 11 points. Owen Swan had 10.
“Offensively, we didn't look super great,” Swanson said. “But credit to Holy Trinity. John is going to have those kids ready every single time that they play. So they played fantastic defensively. They played hard as heck. So they always make it harder to score.
“It was a great win. We gritted it out, found a way to win when we didn't play our best. So that was nice.”
The Crusaders led 23-19 with 4:11 to play in the third quarter before Central Lee went on its big run. Carson Morrison had five points and Swan and Ward Fraise each hit 3-pointers in that stretch.
“We finally got a couple shots to fall, which was really nice to see,” Swanson said. “We had the place rocking a little bit — our student section was going, our bench was going. We preach that every day — energy at all times. We got a couple open looks. We’ve got a bunch of guys who can shoot. So if they get open,they know that they can let it fly. So it was nice to see.”
Ragar, in his first varsity game, hit key shots down the stretch, including a 3-pointer with 35 seconds left that got Holy Trinity within 37-35.
“He's pretty tough,” Hellige said. “He’s a tough little guard, for sure. It's just we got to give him a little bit of help there at times when he's getting swarmed. But he’s a gamer.”
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