Winter taking a toll on HTC girls

FORT MADISON – The deep freeze that’s enveloped the area has settled in a bit on the Holy Trinity girls' basketball team, and that’s a big frustration for HTC coach Shawn Hopper.
The Lady Crusaders have lost five in a row including Thursday’s 35-23 loss to Wapello in Southeast Iowa Super Conference action. Holy Trinity had two games postponed in the middle of it all and it has the HTC girls out of sorts. Thursday night they couldn’t find an answer to the slump.
“I wish I had a good answer. If I had a good answer, I would have solved it a month ago. We can’t just keep trying to get the ball to Adalyn (Kruse). Somebody else has to step up. She had all 11 points in the first half,” Hopper said.
The senior post did have all 11 points in the first two quarters as the Crusaders moved the ball around the perimeter but couldn’t get any production off the half-court set and the only points came when Kruse would force the issue.
“Nobody wants to attack the basket, and you have to do those things otherwise the defense is just gonna pack it in,” Hopper said. “We just haven’t had anybody else decide they want to step up.”
Points were hard to come by for both teams in the first quarter as the Arrows and the Crusaders combined for just six points with Kruse’s early freethrow the only HTC points. Wapello, making the trip with just six players, stretched a second quarter lead to six points at 9-3 with 4:05 left in the half, but Kruse would cut it to four on a nice inlet pass from Olivia Bendlage.

Kruse would score back-to-back on defensive stops from the Crusaders and then would get a steal in transition and score in the next half-court set to tie things at 9. Wapello would answer with a 5-2 run capped by Alexis Brown’s short jumper in the lane for a 14-11 halftime score.
Play was still sluggish out of the break with four steals off pressure at both ends that turned into no points. Taeya Wagner would break the seal with a bucket about two minutes into the 3rd quarter. Kruse would answer off another assist from Bendlage for a 17-13 deficit and, it wasn’t until 1:37 left in the third period, that someone other than Kruse would get on the scoreboard. McKayla Simpson would score from the right side of the lane on a 12-footer to cut the lead to nine at 24-15.
Hopper said in the fourth he tried to set up some 3-point plays to get back in the game, but also to open up the middle a little to allow for some penetration off the dribble. It worked early when Madisyn Griffin hit from long distance for a 24-18 game. Wagner would answer for the Arrows and then Annaka Greiner got fouled on a 3-ball and converted all three to give Wapello a double digit lead. Elizabeth Griffin hit a 3 late in the game, but the Crusaders had to go into foul mode to slow the clock and the Arrows hit all six freethrows to secure the win.
Hopper said the Crusaders (3-13, 2-9) haven’t played in 10 days due to a couple cancellations and that’s been a little bit of a problem keeping energy high in otherwise cold conditions.
“Energy’s a big thing and we try to get some offense off our defense – score in transition, but I don’t think we had a single point off transition tonight,” he said.
“It was the 4th quarter before we attacked the basket. I set up some plays just to get some threes up and open it up so we can attack. That’s our game plan all along and it didn’t work.”
Kruse led the Crusaders with 14 points. Simpson and Elizabeth and Madisyn Griffin all had three in the loss. The Crusaders travel to No. 9 Mediapolis tonight and travel to New London on Tuesday before the SEISC Shoot-Out starts on Thursday. They finish up with home games against Clark County and Burlington Notre Dame on Feb. 9th and 10th.