Hellige takes over top HTC scoring mark

FORT MADISON - Holy Trinity’s 77-39 boys basketball win over New London on Friday was a night for kings.

Luke Hellige was celebrated after the game for becoming the program’s all-time leading scorer during Thursday’s loss against West Burlington.

And the leading scorer was Maddox Rung with 23 points, just a couple of hours after he was named Homecoming king.

It was a good bounce-back for the Crusaders (9-4 overall, 6-3 SEI Superconference South Division), who were playing on their second consecutive night after not playing for 13 days because of the snow and the cold temperatures that led to postponements of four games.

“It wasn’t perfect by any means,” Holy Trinity coach John Hellige said. “But we played really well.”

“The West Burlington game showed us the tempo we need to start playing with again,” Rung said. “Those snow days kind of messed us up, but I think we’re back into (a rhythm).”

Holy Trinity opened the game with a 10-0 run, and it was clear the Crusaders were trying for a more balanced attack after Thursday’s game, in which Luke Hellige and Conner Gehling had all but five of their team’s points in a 61-45 loss.

The strategy for New London (3-11, 2-9) was to keep double-teams on Hellige, and that freed other players.

Rung had five points in the Crusaders’ 10-0 run to open the game.

“Right away, they were leaving me open, so I knew I had to shoot it at least,” he said. “I know I missed a few shots, but I knew they would start going in.”

“We’ve been telling those guys they need to be aggressive, they need to score, they need to shoot,” John Hellige said. “I think, for Maddox especially, once he sees one go down, his confidence is sky high, and it really changes the dynamic when they have to go out and play defense on all five guys.”

“They really focused on me in the first half, so Maddox was hitting shots, Adam (Sobczak) was hitting shots, Conner (Gehling) was attacking,” Luke Hellige said.

Seven Crusaders scored in the game.

Luke Hellige, who is a junior, pushed his career point total to 853 after his 18-point game. He passed Cory Hopper, who had 818 points, in Thursday’s game.

John Hellige, Luke’s father, smiled as he talked about his son.

“It’s sometimes hard being Coach and Dad,” he said. “I try to put the ‘Dad’ hat aside. He probably takes more butt-chewings than the rest of the team combined. He’s worked super hard, he’s in the gym every day getting up shots, getting in the weight room. He’s doing all of the right things that a coach wants his kid to do, and the right things a dad wants him to do.”

“It means a lot, with all the work I put in, shooting all day in the summer,” said Luke Hellige, who said he gets shots up an hour each day with his father. “It’s really my teammates getting me open, me hitting shots.”

Gehling had 21 points for the Crusaders.

Brendan Richey led New London with 16 points.