John Bohnenkamp for Pen City Current Sports
FORT MADISON - Holy Trinity’s 63-55 boys basketball win over Notre Dame on Tuesday night at Shottenkirk Gym was about the Crusaders making a statement.
“It shows,” coach John Hellige said, “that we deserve to be at the top (of the SEI Superconference South Division).
The Crusaders (10-4 overall, 7-3 division), now in second place in the division, have two losses this season to division leader West Burlington and one to state-ranked Winfield-Mount Union. And coming off a 61-45 loss to West Burlington last Thursday, Holy Trinity answered with a 38-point win over New London on Friday, and now this victory.
“We had a couple of losses there that were heartbreaking,” Hellige said. “We know what a great team Notre Dame is, and everything they’ve done, but it shows we’ve got a really, really nice team.”
The Crusaders swept the season series from the Nikes, winning 66-57 in Burlington in December.
“We watched the film of the first game,” Hellige said. “We thought we played really well and then we watched the film and thought, ‘Holy cow, we’re a lot better team than we were that first go-round.”
Holy Trinity took control of the game late in the first half. The Crusaders were up 23-21 before going on an 11-2 run to close the half.
Notre Dame (9-5, 6-3) got to within 44-40 late in the third quarter, but wouldn’t threaten again.
“We knew it was going to be tough and physical,” Hellige said. “I think sometimes we’re like a chameleon — we adapt to the officials or adapt to how we’re playing.”
Luke Hellige led Holy Trinity with 29 points, but only had six in the second half as the Nikes focused their defense on him. But Conner Gehling had 11 of his 17 points in the second half. Layne Rung added 11 points.
“Luke had a great first half, so we knew they were going to focus on him in the second half, and why wouldn’t you?” John Hellige said. “But we had other kids step up and hit tough shot after tough shot..”
Holy Trinity hadn’t played a game in 13 days because of postponements caused by the winter weather. Now, it seems, the Crusaders have responded.
“It just speaks volumes of the tenacity of this team to stick through the cold-outs and the snow-outs, the missed practices and the games, and then come in and play your ‘A’ game against a really tough Notre Dame team,” John Hellige said.
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