HTC girls rebound with win at Van Buren

KEOSAUQUA - Mary Kate Bendlage made a quicker-than-expected return from a knee injury and scored 14 to lead the Holy Trinity girls to a 53-33 win over Van Buren Friday night.

Bendlage scored 12 of her 14 in the first half as the Crusaders held the Warriors to just three points in the second quarter. HTC would open up a 28-14 lead at the half.

The Crusaders would extend the lead to 16 in the third quarter despite being held scoreless for the first four minutes of the second half.

Van Buren would go on a 7-2 run to close the gap to nine, but then Holy Trinity would turn things around with an 8-2 run of their own to push the lead to 39-23 going into the fourth quarter, where they would push the lead to 20.

Kayla Box had nine for HTC and Teagan Snaadt had seven in the win. Presley Myers had six and Mary Hellige finished with five.

The Crusaders improve to 2-4 in the SEI Superconference with the win and 3-4 overall.

They travel to Kahoka to play in the River Rivalry Classic at Clark County High School Saturday.