Lady Crusaders building momentum at right time

FORT MADISON - It was a good week for Holy Trinity’s girls basketball team.
It was a week the Crusaders needed.
The 36-27 win over Notre Dame on Friday night at Shottenkirk Gym was the second win of the week for the Crusaders (11-5 overall, 7-4 Southeast Iowa Super Conference South Division), who had lost five of their last six.
Holy Trinity won 51-40 at Van Buren, then took control of this game in the third quarter to complete the sweep of the week.
“This was a good week,” said guard Teagan Snaadt, who led Holy Trinity with 15 points. “It really helps to get some wins, boost the confidence of everyone, and get back in the flow of things. We had played six games in 14 days, so it was nice to just have two games.”
Holy Trinity coach Shawn Hopper said in preparing for the week, he focused only on the first half of the Crusaders’ 49-29 loss at Fort Madison last Saturday.
“I felt like we played a really good first half of (the) Fort Madison (game), and we just tried to build on that, instead of looking at the negative stuff that we did the week prior,” Hopper said. “We kind of tried to build on the positive, and I felt like we played one of our better offensive games at Van Buren.”
That momentum carried into this game, when Holy Trinity outscored the Nikes (5-11, 4-8) 14-2 in the first quarter. Notre Dame, though, went on a 15-2 run in the second quarter to take the lead before Snaadt’s layup with 1:02 left gave the Crusaders an 18-17 lead at halftime.

Holy Trinity scored the first 11 points of the third quarter, holding the Nikes scoreless until Kaitlyn Kipp’s basket with 39 seconds left. Snaadt started that run, but five different Crusaders scored in that stretch, capped by Morgan Krogmeier’s basket with 59 seconds to go in the quarter.
“That third quarter was huge for us,” Snaadt said. “We talked in the locker room, we're like, OK, we’ve got to come out and step it up again.”
“My plan was always to try to create offense from our defense,” Hopper said. “We don't have a big bench, but I told the girls, it's gut-check time and we're going to get after it tonight.”
The Nikes got to within six points early in the quarter and were down 33-25 before Snaadt sealed the win with a baseline reverse layup.
“I tried to do it earlier in the game, and it just didn't go my way,” Snaadt said. “I had the baseline to drive, but there were three girls posted up on that block. So I went to the opposite block. It’s something I did a lot back when I played travel ball a couple years ago. So I thought, I might as well do it.”
Olivia Bendlage added six points for the Crusaders, while Elizabeth Griffin had five.
Kipp and Daisy Hazell each had eight for the Nikes.
“We needed to get back on the right track,” Hopper said. “Hopefully we're going in that direction.”