Hellige goes for 20, but Crusaders outgunned

WEST BURLINGTON - Luke Hellige's 20 points was one of the few bright spots in the Crusaders' 72-52 loss at West Burlington Friday night.

The Falcons raced out to an 18-9 first quarter lead and never looked back as the Falcons, ranked 5th and 6th in area Class 2A polls, rolled.

It took three and a half minutes for the Crusaders to get on the board, while the Falcons were already up 9-0. West Burlington would push that lead to 18-9 at the end of the first quarter behind Brady Martin's nine points.

Martin led all scorers with 27 on the night, including 19 in the first half, as West Burlington built a 21-point 39-18 lead going into the break.

Holy Trinity couldn't get any traction out of the locker room as the Falcons built a 32-point lead in the third and kept going until Head Coach Ryan O'Hern started emptying the bench.

Conner Gehling had 11 for the Crusaders, while Nick Fullenkamp and Maddux Rung each had eight in the loss.

West Burlington improves to 9-0 in the SEI Superconference South and 11-0 overall.

The Crusaders (2-7, 4-9) take on Fort Madison Saturday evening in the annual HTC Cake Auction night. The boys follow a varsity girls' game starting at 4 p.m.