Crusaders inconsistent in loss to Bulldogs

FORT MADISON - Holy Trinity’s boys basketball team reached the halfway point in the SEISC South Division schedule and came away with a lesson to take into the second half.
Tuesday’s 55-37 loss to Mediapolis at Shottenkirk Gym taught the Crusaders what they need to do if they want to contend with the top teams in the division the rest of the way.
It’s all about effort, coach John Hellige said.
“The word that came to mind for me was they just had more heart than we did,” Hellige said. “In general, our effort wasn’t good enough to play with one of the top teams in the conference tonight.”
Holy Trinity (4-4 overall, 3-4 division) was down 14-0 with 5 ½ minutes gone in the game, and the Crusaders were left to chase the Bulldogs (7-2, 6-1) the rest of the night.
Holy Trinity did answer that early Mediapolis run with an 8-0 run of its own, and was within 20-16 with 4:26 left in the first half before the Bulldogs pulled away again. Mediapolis closed the half with an 11-4 run, then opened the second half with another 11-4 run.

The Crusaders did get to within 44-33 with 6:15 left, but got just two field goals to finish the game.
“We missed some easy bunnies tonight,” Hellige said. “And I don't know how many turnovers we had, but our managers had us at 17. It's just really tough to beat a top-tier conference team when you miss those easy shots and you have that amount of turnovers.”
Freshman Jack Ragar led the Crusaders with 14 points, but no other Holy Trinity player was in double figures.
Will Luttenegger and Max Griffin each had 16 points for Mediapolis.
Hellige made sure to stress to his team that a game like this can’t happen again.
“The message was really about, I'm OK with mistakes — we're gonna miss shots, we're gonna miss bunnies, we're gonna turn the ball over from time to time,” he said. “But what really hurts me as a coach more than anything is when you get outplayed, and we're just outplayed, out-toughed and out-hearted tonight. And there's just really no excuse for that, to not to play hard. And we played hard in spurts, but it just wasn't consistent all night long. Against top-tier teams in the South, you can't take any plays off, and when you do, it's going to burn you.”