HTC boys find range in win over Hawks

FORT MADISON – The Shottenkirk Gymnasium had a sweet spot Tuesday night during the boys basketball game between Holy Trinity Catholic and Central Lee.
The cross county rivals settled in on the left baseline just outside of 3-point range and hit a combined 10 3-balls from that spot at both ends of the court before the Crusaders pulled away for a 53-47 SEI Superconference win in Fort Madison.
The win was the second in two days for the Crusaders. They’ll be tested again Friday when they host Danville.
Central Lee, under first year coach Jonny Swanson, gave as good as they got throughout the night until HTC settled in for the final four minutes to pull away.
Holy Trinity senior Luke Hellige led all scorers with 24 points including four 3-pointers. The 2023-24 ISPWA 1st team all-stater was facing double and sometimes triple teams in the paint all night but was able to score heavily from the perimeter and got to the free throw line ten times.
“Luke’s a three-level scorer. He can hit the threes, he can drive, he can post up a little bit, and he keeps a cool head. You can always count on game production from him,” Head Coach John Hellige said.
“I thought he had a really nice game.”
Luke Hellige said he will be facing a lot of double teams this year.
“A lot of doubles since we lost Conner (Gehle) and Maddox (Rung), both really good kids. We still have Layne and Adam, but we’re seeing a lot doubles inside,” he said.
“When I see that I try to distribute more to the outside so we can find some open shots for other guys. Then it’s harder for them to double if we’re hitting our shots.”
He said he expects teams to pressure him all season, but he said he wants to not force turnovers and to stay composed.
Swanson said the Hawks just wanted to make things tough on Luke Hellige the entire game.
“The whole goal was to make everything tough. You have to make him work. Our big thing was no catch-and-threes,” he said.
“He got a couple but for the most part I think most times when he caught the ball he had to put it on the floor. We just wanted to make him work super hard and limit him to two-pointers.”

Swanson said he liked the pace of the game and the physicality. But he said the Hawks need to get used handling their composure in those moments.
“I told the guys, we’re going to be in those games. We’re not going to get blown out by 30, but we have to compete every single night.”
The game opened in a frantic pace with the Crusaders hitting six of their first nine first shots with Hellige and Layne Rung combining for 11 of HTC’s 15 first quarter points. Central Lee's Kaden Swan got a couple 3-balls enroute to eight first quarter points to help tie Holy Trinity at 15 at the end of one.
While the Hawks were keying on Rung and Hellige, Koby Jones got free in the second quarter for three buckets to compliment a Hellige 3-ball and a Rung bucket to give HTC a 26-23 lead at the half. The Hawks went cold in the second quarter hitting just three of nine shots.
The Hawks came out and tied the Crusaders at 30 in the 3rd quarter behind five straight from Ward Fraise, but HTC would answer with an 8-0 run including a 3-ball from Hellige this time from the right baseline. Hellige was taken out on the play when two players tumbled into him on a mangled screen play. The Hawks were called for the fouling Hellige after the shot and the Crusaders retained possession up 38-30.
They would slowly pull away and the Hawks would get no closer than six trailing by as much as 10 down the stretch.
Coach Hellige said the Crusaders were a little chaotic due to Central Lee’s aggressive style of play.
“I think Central Lee played really, really aggressive and that got to us a bit and sped us up. But when Adam (Sobczak) went out, we did a good job of slowing things down, used some clock, and made good decisions,” he said.
Back-to-back nights to open the season is really tough. Jay (Ellison) played four quarters of jayvee and then two quarters of varsity and I bet he was feeling it.”
Ellison came in after starting point guard Sobczak fouled out with 4:07 left in the game and helped keep the motion around the half-court to run time off the clock.
“We played about 40 games this offseason. Jay came along with us and came to absolutely everything - every open gym, every team camp, and he slowly got better each appearance in the gym. He worked himself from ‘not sure there is room in the Suburban, to playing in a varsity game in crunch time. It says loads about his work ethic and the team in general.”
Swanson said people who watched Central Lee tonight saw more energy than they may be used to and saw kids who will fight and be in games with the best teams in the area.
“I like the way we battled and the way we competed. We talked about that level of competing and that pride. I think anyone who watched us tonight can say 'that team plays hard and battled their tail off and competed up until the end',” he said.
Swan led the Hawks with 11 points. Brayden Wyrick had nine, Owen Swan had eight and Fraise finished with seven for the 0-1 Hawks. Holy Trinity (2-0) got 13 from Rung and 10 from Jones.