Holy Trinity boys hang with No. 3 Nikes

BURLINGTON — His team hadn’t played a “perfect game,” as Holy Trinity boys' basketball coach John Hellige said, but what the Crusaders did for the first 30 minutes of Tuesday’s Class 1A District 9 final against No. 3 Notre Dame got them in a position Hellige wanted.
The Nikes, though, eliminated Holy Trinity with a run over those last two minutes that led to the 64-51 win.
Notre Dame (23-2) plays Calamus-Wheatland (23-2) in Saturday’s Substate 5 final at Iowa City High, with the winner advancing to the state tournament.
This game was the closest of the three these rivals played against each other this season, and it was one where Holy Trinity was in position to make a final run at the Nikes.
The Crusaders were down 54-51 and had the ball after Notre Dame’s Shay Stephens stepped out of bounds with 2:14 to play.
“Down 3, with the ball, two minutes to go, yeah, you like to be in that position,” Hellige said. “We hadn’t played a perfect game to that point, but we were in position to win, and that’s what you want.”
The Crusaders, though, would not score again. Jack Ragar missed a 3-pointer on that possession after the Stephens’ turnover, then Stephens scored at the other end. Holy Trinity had two shots in the inside on its next possession, then Notre Dame’s L.J. Harris scored with 1:05 to play for a 58-51 lead.
Holy Trinity’s Corbin Van Niewaal was fouled with 50 seconds left, but missed both free throws. Notre Dame then wrapped up the win with four free throws from Griffin Kies, then Eli Oleson hit a layup with nine seconds left for the final margin.
Holy Trinity (16-8) led twice in the first two minutes of the game before the Nikes took the lead to stay, but the Crusaders never let them get too far ahead. Notre Dame led by as much as 11 points in the first half and was up 50-40 with six minutes left before Holy Trinity made its final run.

“We just did a really good job being locked in defensively for the most part,” Hellige said. “Just wish a few balls would have bounced our way, or a couple more baskets, but we were right there, and that's all you can ask as a coach.”
Holy Trinity held Stephens, who averages 25.2 points, to just 13. Kies led the Nikes with 22 points.
It was a three-part game plan for Hellige.
“Number one, we knew we had to stop transition — they're just so good in transition,” Hellige said. “So I thought we did a good job of that. We lost track of them a couple times when we started getting tired. Number two was to try to push them left. I mean, they're just so good going right. So we tried to push them left.
“And then we tried to control the defensive glass, and we tried to control tempo a little bit and attack wisely. It was really about as simple as it gets. And we had some assignments within the matchups specifically, and for the most part, we executed that other in the first quarter,when Kies got loose on us and hit a few shots there.”
Layne Rung, in his final game with the Crusaders, scored 26 points. Ragar capped a strong freshman season by finishing with 11 points.
Rung, Van Niewaal, and Nathan Box are the seniors Hellige will lose.
“Those guys averaged about 16 wins a season in their last three years and reached three district finals,” Hellige said. “That’s pretty good.
“I told the boys all week that in all the preseason interviews, no one had us doing anything this year. You know, I don't think a single coach mentioned us, other than to say Holy Trinity. Is going to be down this year. This group of seniors in particular took the team on their shoulders in the weight room, open gyms, team camps, and they were determined not to let the program fall back to a sub-.500 program. And you know, we're able to do that and get to our third straight district final. Do I want more? Yeah, obviously we do, but I’m just super proud of these guys and all the work that they put in to get to this point.”