John Bohnenkamp for Pen City Current Sports
FORT MADISON - Natalie Randolph had one of those right-place, right-time moments, but there wasn’t much time to think.
Still, one thought crossed the mind of the Holy Trinity senior guard.
“I was really hoping I didn’t miss the layup,” she said, laughing.
She didn’t.
Randolph’s steal and layup with less than two seconds left in the game gave the Crusaders a 64-63 win over Notre Dame on Tuesday night at Shottenkirk Gym.
Holy Trinity (13-1 overall, 9-1 SEI Superconference South Division) won its eighth consecutive game, avenging the only blemish on its record — an overtime loss to the Nikes back in December.
“I think the last time we played them, we knew we didn’t play our best,” junior Anna Bendlage said. “We knew we could beat them, we just had to go out and do it.”
But it took a sequence of events in the final five seconds for the Crusaders to get out with the home win.
Trailing 63-60 with five seconds left, Holy Trinity’s Presley Myers was fouled after scoring off a missed shot by teammate Mary Kate Bendlage. Myers missed the ensuing free throw, and in the five-player scramble for the rebound the ball went out of bounds, ruled to have hit off a Holy Trinity player in the chaos.
All the Nikes had to do was get the inbounds pass in, but the pass went directly into Randolph’s hands as she stood a couple of feet from the basket. Randolph scored on the layup, sending Holy Trinity coach Tony Johnson into a fist-pumping hop-skip-and-jump down the sidelines as the buzzer sounded.
“Just how we drew that up,” Johnson joked after the game.
It was, he said, all about Randolph’s experience.
“She didn’t play last year, but that’s a three-year varsity player,” Johnson said. “She made a great play. Presley was taking it hard missing that free throw, so I’m glad she was able to pick her up.”
“Luckily I got the ball,” Randolph said. “I just didn’t want to miss the shot. But it ended up good.
“It’s definitely a big win.”
Randolph’s shot ended a night when so many Crusaders delivered big shots.
The Nikes played a box-and-one to take away Bendlage, Holy Trinity’s leading scorer, who finished with 20 points.
But it was Bendlage’s sister, Anna, who delivered some of the biggest moments for the Crusaders. Anna had five 3-pointers, including two in the fourth quarter, finishing with 17 points.
“She couldn’t miss,” Randolph said. “It was insane.”
The Crusaders have needed a consistent outside shooter to free up defenses, and Mary Kate Bendlage said she has been encouraging her sister to shoot more.
And when Anna’s first three snapped the net with 1:55 left in the first quarter, her sister knew what was coming next.”
“I am so proud of her,” Mary Kate said. “Last night at practice, I was joking around with her, I was like, ‘Come on, you need to start shooting.’ And she said, ‘Don’t tell me what to do.’ And then she let that first one go tonight and swished it. I saw a different look on her face, and I knew she was going to have a good night.”
“I thought Anna had a great game,” Johnson said. “We’ve been begging her to shoot the ball. It’s a confidence thing with her. She can shoot the ball. Hopefully this will open up another avenue of scoring.”
“I know I can shoot them in practice,” Anna said. “Sometimes I shoot once in a game, and then I let my teammates shoot because I have full faith in them. I think, tonight, I had to hit shots.”
Her last two were her biggest shots — back-to-back threes that gave Holy Trinity a 59-58 lead with 3 ½ minutes left in the game.
After the second three, Anna threw up a three-finger signal that the best shooters like to display.
“I was so proud of her on that,” Mary Kate said, laughing. “Seeing her with that confidence, it makes me so happy for her.”
“She told me after the game she did that,” Randolph said, smiling. “That was great.”
Randolph had 10 points. Adalyn Kruse had eight points, and Myers had seven.
“Tonight,” Mary Kate Bendlage said, “we were hard to guard.”
The win was one for the Crusaders to savor.
“It’s so amazing,” Anna Bendlage said. “We like to beat them.”
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