Lady Crusaders enter top 15

NEW LONDON — Holy Trinity’s Mary Kate Bendlage knew something was wrong when her first free throw 34 seconds into Friday’s game against New London not only missed, but took a weird rebound off the rim.

“It felt super-heavy, and when it bounced weird, I was like, ‘No way this could be a girls ball,’” Bendlage said.

Bendlage called one of the officials over, and after a short discussion, it was discovered that, indeed, a basketball used in boys games had been put into play at the start of the game.

That discovery made Bendlage feel relieved.

“After I turned it in, I thought, ‘If this is a girls ball, this is going to be really embarrassing,’” she said, laughing.

Bendlage got a do-over, and this time, with the right ball, made both free throws.

It was that kind of night in the Crusaders’ 67-24 win.

Holy Trinity (5-0 overall, 4-0 SEI Superconference South Division), which moved into the Class 1A state rankings at No. 15 one day earlier, needed to provide its own energy in a nearly silent gym, and sometimes that led to ragged play.

It was a good lesson for the Crusaders against a New London team that is 0-6 overall, 0-4 in the division.

“No matter what level we’re playing at — New London wasn’t going to roll over and die — we have to play at our best level,” Bendlage said. “What you saw tonight wasn’t who we were at Mepo (Tuesday’s 59-52 win over Mediapolis when the Crusaders rallied in the fourth quarter), and I think for us, going through the rest of the season, we have to play at our highest level no matter what, no matter who we’re playing or what the energy is like in the gym.”

“The energy in the first quarter — in the gym, everywhere — was really flat,” Holy Trinity coach Tony Johnson said. “Yeah, we won by a lot, but we stalled the ball a lot. We didn’t keep it moving, there was a lot of one-on-one stuff, and that happens sometimes.”

Johnson kept telling his team to slow down — it was easy to hear over the quiet.

“Everybody was wanting to score,” Johnson said. “A lot of times it was one pass and a shot, and that’s OK sometimes. But an extra pass gets even a better shot.

“We were playing hard. The energy was just off tonight. In the first quarter, it was like a 7 o’clock in the morning YMCA game.”

“Everything was just really dead,” Bendlage said. “It felt like I was back in fifth and sixth grade, and my parents were yelling, ‘Shoot, shoot.’ Because it was just so quiet.”

Holy Trinity scored the first 12 points of the game, led 27-6 at the end of the first quarter, and 38-12 at halftime. The Crusaders finally got to the 35-point mark and the running clock midway through the third quarter.

Still, the feeling was they could have done things better.

“When (Johnson) took us out in the fourth quarter, it didn’t feel like we were up 40 points, it felt like the game was neck-and-neck,” Bendlage said. “I don’t like that feeling, and I think there’s things we need to work on.”

Bendlage led the Crusaders with 19 points. Teagan Snaadt had 17 points. Natalie Randolph had 16.

Holy Trinity plays at Notre Dame (3-1, 3-1) on Tuesday.