John Bohnenkamp for Pen City Current Sports
DONNELLSON — It took a few minutes for the defense of Holy Trinity’s girls basketball team to wake up from the Christmas break.
Then the Crusaders began doing what they’ve been doing all season — shutting down opponents.
Holy Trinity won its fifth consecutive game on Friday night, a 56-37 win over Central Lee that looked so much like the Crusaders’ other victories this season. And they did with a short-handed rotation.
Senior Raegan Holvoet and sophomore Presley Myers were out because of health reasons, which forced coach Tony Johnson to alter his rotation a bit, and the Crusaders (10-1 overall, 6-1 Superconference South Division) kept rolling.
Senior Mary Kate Bendlage led the Crusaders with 28 points. Senior Natalie Randolph had 21.
“MK did her thing, Natalie did her thing,” said Johnson, who expects Myers and Holvoet back within the next week. “And we got some big minutes from some other players who haven’t played a lot.”
Freshman Adalyn Kruse started in Myers’ place, and fellow freshman Ellie Hellman got minutes off the bench in key spots.
“Adalyn gave us good minutes, Ellie got to play some more, so that’s another player we can go to when we need to,” Johnson said. “It was just next player up, and they came through.”
“Presley and Raegan are such key aspects of our offense,” Bendlage said. “They can draw a lot of attention from defense. So what you saw tonight was Natalie step up, Teagan (Snaadt) step up bringing the ball up and making plays, the freshmen making plays.”
“The freshmen stepped up, really played some great minutes,” Randolph said.
Holy Trinity, which held its last five opponents to a combined 68 points, led just 17-11 at the end of the first quarter, but held Central Lee (3-7, 3-5) to just one field goal and four points in the second quarter.
“The first quarter we were a little upset with our play, just because we were a little slow,” Bendlage said. “The second quarter, we really amped it up. That’s when our defense started becoming the key.”
“I was disappointed at halftime that we didn’t attack the basket, that we weren’t the aggressors,” Central Lee coach Taylor Hickey said. “They were in that zone, and they look big — they’re long and lanky. But we can’t be afraid to make a mistake.
Holy Trinity led 54-23 with four minutes left in the game when Johnson began taking out his starters.
“The defense was right where it was when we broke for Christmas,” he said. “They were at (23) points when we pulled the starters. That’s pretty good for four quarters and down two players.”
“Our defense has been spectacular this year,” Bendlage said. “We’re limiting most teams to under 30 points, and that’s a great thing.”
Central Lee tried taking away Bendlage with sometimes two or three defenders when she would get the ball inside. But Randolph’s three 3-pointers foiled that defensive plan.
“Defense for me is hustle and heart. But you have to be in the right position,” Hickey said. “There would be times Bendlage would catch the ball down low, and my girls would turn their backs. And she would pass it out and (Randolph) would hit a three.”
“We’ve really been working on our shooting in practice, so it was good to be able to hit some in a game, see them go down,” Randolph said.
Hickey said the Hawks’ inexperience showed against the older Crusaders.
“It was our first game back after a long break,” she said. “We practiced really hard during break — I was proud of my girls showing up every day, and working hard. Having Holy Trinity right off the bat is a difficult game for us, always has been. And they have some great, talented athletes.
“We’ve got to get better at defense and taking care of the ball. We never got into a rhythm. We never could find it. We’d get a rebound, come down, and we would turn it over. Or we would miss a shot. We could never find that click to get us going.”
The Crusaders never lost the click they had in December.
“Out of break, teams can struggle, because it is such a long break,” Randolph said. “But we really pushed through tonight.”
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