Crusaders wrap regular season with blowout

FORT MADISON - It’s all postseason from here for the Holy Trinity boys basketball team.
Which is why coach John Hellige is hoping his team can build off what it did in the second half of Monday’s 70-35 win over Clark County at Shottenkirk Gym.
The Crusaders (14-7), who led 40-21 at halftime, held the Indians to just 14 second-half points, all of them coming over the last 11 minutes, 35 seconds of the game.
“I kind of got on them a little bit at halftime,” Hellige said. “We’re up 19 at halftime, but I just really wasn't content with our effort. It just seemed like we were kind of going through the motions, and so I really kind of challenged it at halftime to just pick up our intensity, especially our defensive intensity. And, you know, I think we held around 14 points there in the second half. So it was a good effort.”
The momentum for that second half actually started in the first half, when the Crusaders had a 10-0 run late in the second quarter that put them up 37-14. Clark County cut a little bit off that margin heading into halftime, then Holy Trinity opened the second half with a 19-2 run capped by Nathan Box’s basket inside with three minutes into the third quarter. That put the rest of the game into a running clock under the IHSAA’s 35-point rule.

Rung led the Crusaders with 22 points. Jack Ragar had 16 points and Jay Ellison added 10.
Holy Trinity now has a week to prepare for next Monday’s Class 1A district tournament opener against WACO.
“I just really kind of challenged the guys in general that, you know, we’ve got to play hard,” Hellige said. “We've only got so many more practices. This is our last really fine tune-up game. I think Clark County is a little bit better than what they showed tonight. And I thought overall, we played a pretty darn good game.”
Holy Trinity defeated WACO 69-54 in early December on the Warriors’ home court. Next Monday’s game will be on the Crusaders’ home court.
“Everybody that we play now is 0-0,” Hellige said. “We start with a WACO team that's got a lot of history of success here recently. They're playing for pride and their senior class, and you know, they're not going to want to bow out here in the quarterfinals. So, you know, we've got to be sharp defensively. We got to be sharp offensively. And hopefully we can ride this thing as long as we can.”