With a balanced effort Friday night, the Helias boys basketball scored in the 80s for the second straight game, and third time this season. To say the Crusaders have the offense clicking would be a huge understatement.
"We pose a lot of mismatch problems for people with several guys that can produce on any given night and the versatility we have with our size," Helias head coach Josh Buffington said after an 80-67 win against Branson at Rackers Fieldhouse. "These guys can play on the perimeter, take you off the dribble and so it's going to be one of those teams this year that could be hard to guard."
After putting up 83 points in a win against Battle on Monday, the Crusaders averaged 81.5 points per game this week.
"Once you turn the corner after Christmas, scouting intensity goes up across the state," Buffington said. "Some of our guys are going to get no-touch, some are going to get backed off, some of them are going to get doubled, and people are just going to try to exploit what they think are weaknesses our guys. But the way we produce and spread it around will play to our benefit in those situations."
Landon Harrison was almost perfect while leading Friday's balanced effort. The sophomore point guard hit 5-of-5 from 2-point range, 5-of-5 from the free-throw line and 1-of-2 from 3-point range while dropping in 18 points.
Trevor Koelling and Sam Husting added 16 points apiece for the Crusaders, Nick Bax added 12 and Adam Bax narrowly missed joining those four in double figures by scoring nine.
"Offensively, I thought we played great," Buffington said. "Our shot selection was good for the most part, we only had two or three bad shots when you look back at some time and score situations. Other than that, we're really clicking offensively."
It showed on the scoreboard, as Helias scored at least 18 points in every quarter. The Crusaders fell behind 6-2 to start the game but came back to tie it three times before ending the first quarter up 18-17.
Helias then exploded for a 24-point second quarter. The Crusaders took their biggest lead of the opening half at 10 points on two different occasions, with both being 3s. The first was by Alex Brandt that made it 27-17, and the next was by Adam Bax that made it 42-32. Helias took a 42-34 lead into halftime.
The Crusaders took their biggest lead of the third quarter at 58-40 on a layup by Harrison, only to see Branson make a run and get within 58-47 with :23 left in the period. But Husting helped Helias right the ship by hitting a runner with :01 left to make it 60-47 going to the final quarter.
The Crusaders then started the final period with a 6-0 run thanks to a short jumper by Koelling, a layup by Adam Bax and a tip-in by Koelling that made it 66-47.
"We have all the confidence in the world our guys can play with poise - they've done that through our first six games this year and did it again tonight," Buffington said. "Maybe other groups I've had in the past would have gotten a little timid in those situations or fragmented, but not this group. We were definitely proud of the way we stopped their runs and answered them with one of our own."
Branson never got closer than 11 points again, as both teams scored 20 points in the fourth. Buffington was looking for a little better defensive effort after the win.
"Give a lot of credit to Branson, they did a great job and executed extremely well, screened extremely well," he said. "But we didn't guard to our scouting report like we were supposed to at times and we definitely did not finish off possessions on the defensive boards, and that should never be an issue with our team.
"The best thing about our guys is they'll learn from the defensive struggles we had tonight and quickly get them fixed."
Nick Dapprich scored a game-high 23 points to lead Branson (3-4), while Seth Wood had 18 and Montana Myer added 12.
Helias (5-1) is now off until it open the Joe Machens Great 8 Classic at 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 28 at Fleming Fieldhouse against Owasso, Okla.
In the JV game, Helias squeaked out a 46-45 win to improve to 3-0. Nick Brandt led the Crusaders with 14 points and blocked a potential go-ahead shot for Branson at the buzzer.