John Bohnenkamp for Pen City Current Sports
WEST BURLINGTON — The blueprint was designed on Monday, but Holy Trinity’s girls basketball team tore it up on Saturday.
And the Crusaders left Loren Walker Arena with the SEI Superconference Shootout championship because of it.
The 50-26 win over Lone Tree in the title game matchup of the top seeds from the North and South divisions was actually built a few days earlier, when the Crusaders (17-2) were beaten at Danville. The Bears’ pressure defense made Holy Trinity’s offense unsafe at high speed, and Lone Tree (18-3) tried to copy that.
And it worked — for a while.
Then the Crusaders, who have been built on defense all season, held the Lions to just nine second-half points and pulled away for their first championship in this event.
“There was a good 2-3 minute time span there where we were playing at their pace,” said senior Mary Kate Bendlage, who led Holy Trinity with 24 points. “They wanted to speed us up and get the shots they wanted. But at halftime that’s what we talked about, slowing down and going our speed, because we play ours, we’re a better team.”
“We really wanted to focus on staying calm and playing our game in the second half,” said senior Natalie Randolph, who added 15 points. “We really tried to work on our defense in the second half, stay calm, and try not to let them take too many shots.”
Holy Trinity opened the game with an 18-4 run, then Lone Tree closed the first half with a 13-4 run.
“We had that stretch there when they were pressing and we decided to lose our minds again, kind of like we did at Danville,” Holy Trinity coach Tony Johnson said. “The biggest thing was most of their first-half points were second-chance shots. They probably scored eight or 10. You take away the second-chance points…”
That was a point of emphasis during halftime, and the Crusaders listened. They outscored Lone Tree 15-7 in the third quarter, then held the Lions to just two points in the fourth quarter.
“We cleaned our defense up and rebounded, slowed down on offense when they tried to speed us up,” Johnson said. “I thought our defense was great in the second half.”
“I think the first half, we came out with a big run, and then we let them back in,” Bendlage said. “And in the second half, we showed the defense we’ve been pounding on all year. We figured out who their main shooters were, who was hot tonight. Our defense came in really key there in the second half.”
And with that, the Crusaders secured the title they had been wanting.
“It’s huge,” Johnson said. “It’s the first time since (2008) we’ve been here, and then to win it? Super proud of these girls, they work hard.”
“It definitely was a goal we had from the beginning,” Randolph said. “Now we have more goals going forward.”
Holy Trinity closes the regular season with Monday’s game against Mediapolis, then opens Class 1A regional play next Thursday against New London.
“We know the games are going to get more intense, so winning this game was important,” Randolph said.
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