BURLINGTON – What proved to be the last night of the season for the HTC boys, got out of hand pretty quickly in the second half.
The Crusaders dropped a 68-49 Class 1A, District 7 game with Burlington Notre Dame Monday night bringing the season to a halt with a 9-13 final record.
Head Coach John Hellige thanked senior Nick Fullenkamp, the only senior on the team, for his leadership.
“We lose a great senior captain in Nick,” Hellige said. “It’s hard to replace a kid like that, but we’ll be ready to regroup.”
Hellige said the Crusaders played a very tough schedule this year with New London, WACO, Winfield-Mt. Union, West Burlington, Fort Madison, Mediapolis, Danville, and others.
“We’re still very young and who plays in a tougher conference than us,” he said. “Did we get the wins we wanted and hit the goals we set? We didn’t. But I feel like we took a step forward as a program and I wouldn’t trade these kids for anybody in the world.”
The Crusaders trailed early on digging an 0-8 hole before Conner Gehling got HTC going with a bucket inside.
Notre Dame would return fire with a basket by Matthew Booten before Layne Rung fired in a 3-ball off an assist from Maddox Rung to cut the lead to 10-5.
The Nikes would push the lead to seven again at 14-7, but Luke Hellige hit a three from the left wing to make it 14-10. Shay Stephens' 3-pointer at the other end would finish the quarter with the Nikes up seven.
HTC would outscore Notre Dame 18-17 in the second quarter to cut the lead to six at the half 34-28. Hellige had 12 in the first half for the Crusaders.
John Hellige said he switched the Crusaders to a 2-3 zone midway through the second quarter and that seemed to knock the Nikes off pace a bit.
“At halftime we felt pretty good down by just six, but they came out in a diamond and one facing up Luke. We thought we might be able to get Layne going on the perimeter and then Conner going on the inside.”
Notre Dame’s switch to what amounted to a four-man zone fronting up Hellige with a single defender to try and stifle the sophomore proved effective as the Crusaders struggled to get open looks. The visitors went 3 of 9 in the third quarter as Notre Dame pulled out to a 14-point lead 50-36 at the end of three.
Holy Trinity couldn’t get anything going in the fourth quarter either despite being in the bonus with almost six minutes left in the half.
The Nikes went up by as much as 21 at 63-42 in the final period, but Holy Trinity scored five of the next seven to get within 18 and wouldn’t get any closer.
John Hellige said turnovers hurt the Crusaders early. That, coupled with Conner Gehling getting into foul trouble early, cut into HTC’s momentum at the end of the second quarter.
“We just had a few uncharacteristic turnovers we haven’t had the last four games, and then we had some shots that just wouldn’t go down,” he said.
Conner gives us a great game night in and night out. He did some good things offensively. He’ll be there for us.”
Hellige said the hectic pace of the season was hard on the kids, but they learned a lot and played tough competition.
“We had a crazy schedule this year - nine games the first three weeks and then three weeks off at Christmas, and then nine days off after we had a four-game win streak," Hellige said.
“We’re gonna keep working and I think we’re gonna be a pretty darn hard team to beat next year.”
Layne Rung finished with 11 points for HTC. Conner Gehling had nine points and Adam Sobczak had five. Fullenkamp chipped in with two points.
Carsen Jones led Notre Dame with 18. Liam Delaney had 15 and Booten finished with 14. The Nikes will take on Winfield Mt. Union who downed Wapello Monday. That game will be in Winfield on Thursday beginning at 7 p.m.
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