Holy Trinity girls get first win Friday

BURLINGTON — Shawn Hopper had a long conversation with a coaching friend after Holy Trinity’s girls basketball team lost at Van Buren on Tuesday night.
It was the fifth consecutive loss to open the season for the Crusaders, and their coach was frustrated.
"“We talked about our team and what we needed to do,” Hopper said. “And he said, ‘You get that win on Friday night, and you’ll be able to turn things around.”
The Crusaders got that win, a 30-28 victory over Notre Dame.
“You get that monkey off your back,” Hopper said. “Now we can work on some things over (Christmas) break that you need to improve on without that cloud over your head that you haven’t won yet. And hopefully that gets us hungry for more.”
“I think it’s just a motivator to help us get better over break,” said junior Adalyn Kruse, who led Holy Trinity with 19 points. “We can go back to our fundamentals and fix our shots and get ready for the good teams we’ll see after break.”
The Crusaders (1-5 overall, 1-4 SEISC South Division) fought off challenges by the Nikes (1-5, 1-4) in the final two minutes. Freshman Madisyn Griffin’s free throw with 37 seconds put Holy Trinity into the lead, then freshman Lydia Behne hit the first of two free throws with three seconds left to provide the final margin.
“It’s a theme we’ve been talking about,” Hopper said. “We’re young, Notre Dame’s young. We’re putting players in positions they haven’t been in. They’re not used to the pressure. But we did some good things tonight. It wasn’t the prettiest, but we’ll take it.”
Kruse had all nine of the Crusaders’ first-quarter points, including two 3-pointers in the last 12 seconds. The second one beat the buzzer, one of two last-second shots she would make in the game.

Kruse had not made, or even attempted, a 3-pointer in a game this season, but she had behind the scenes.
“We do these shooting stations in practice, and I always shoot threes in those,” Kruse said. “And then (Hopper) told me I have to start shooting them in games.”
She laughed.
“I was not excited,” Kruse said.
It may become a new option in her game.
“Honestly, I’m kind of proud of myself, because my first two years I've always been in the post. I've never had the opportunity to play outside and even get the chance to shoot threes. So they all know me as a post. They don't know I can shoot threes and all that.”
Daisy Hazell led Notre Dame with 13 points.
The Crusaders are off until January 2 against New London at home.
“We'll watch the film and try to clean some stuff up,” Hopper said. “But every game, I see flashes where we do things well, and then flashes where we don't do things well, but that's experience.
“But it was nice to get that first win.”