Five days ago, Hale Hentges was in football pads, playing for the winning team in the Under Armour All-America Game.
Tuesday night, he was in a basketball uniform, leading the Helias Crusaders to - what else? - a win.
Hentges racked up a double-double - scoring a team-high 13 points and tying for the game lead with 11 rebounds - while helping the Crusaders to a 52-41 win against Sedalia Smith-Cotton.
For good measure, Hentges also came up with a huge block with less than two minutes remaining as the Tigers were attempting a comeback.
Hentges said the trip to St. Petersburg, Fla., was a nice diversion for him.
"I think it was good for me to take a break after playing a lot of games and a lot of practices," he said. "I was able to release some of the stress in the pads and get back and play loose. I thought I did that tonight."
Hentges was part of a huge effort by the Crusaders' front-line players. Hentges, Casey McCollum (six points, seven rebounds), Trevor Koelling (six, five) and Adam Bax (four, eight) accounted for 56 percent of the team's scoring and 76 percent of its rebounding.
"Our bigs saved us tonight," Helias coach Josh Buffington said. "I never thought this team would go 2-for-17 from (3-point range), but we did, and we still found a way to win in double figures against a team that had won four in a row."
That inside effort was never more evident than in the decisive second quarter, as the scoring differential in that period accounted for the difference for the game.
Helias outscored Smith-Cotton 16-5 in the frame to turn an 11-10 deficit after one quarter into a 26-16 halftime edge.
"We did a great job of getting post touches and it showed on the scoreboard," Buffington said. "Thankfully we did that in that quarter."
Helias made just 8-of-19 shots in the second quarter, not even attempting a single 3, but was able to keep plugging away thanks to eight offensive rebounds.
"Our guards were definitely making it a priority to get the ball to the post, and all of our posts took advantage of that," Hentges said.
Helias took its biggest lead of the night on its first bucket of the third quarter, a layup by Hentges that made it 28-16.
Smith-Cotton cut the lead to six soon after, but the Crusaders got two free throws from Bax and a short jumper by McCollum to quickly push it back to 10.
Helias' lead was 39-30 heading to the fourth quarter, where the Crusaders had a 13-11 scoring edge.
"The tempo of the game, the flow of it, was more in (Smith-Cotton's) favor," Buffington said. "In the second quarter, we forced our will and they had to play our way. In the first, third and fourth, they really controlled the tempo.
"We didn't want it to be a low-scoring game, we wanted it to be fast-paced. But we weren't often able to get it past 10 or 11, which would really force them to play a lot quicker. We just couldn't capitalize on either end when we needed to to punch it to 12 or 14."
The closest Smith-Cotton got in the fourth quarter was five points.
Collin Caywood joined Hentges in double-figures scoring for Helias (10-2) with 10 points.
Chance Johnson had a game-high 14 points for Smith-Cotton (4-3), while Jacob Bergman tied Hentges for the game high with 11 rebounds.
Hentges said it was a good win against a tough team.
"(Smith-Cotton) coach (Brennan) Scanlon is a great coach - we've been battling him at Mexico since my freshman year," Hentges said. "He knows how to coach up his players. They're a really great team.
"It's big to get a win at home and continue our streak, that's six in a row for us. We've just got to keep it rolling."
Helias returns to action Friday at Moberly.
In Tuesday's JV game, Helias rolled to a 64-45 victory.
Landon Harrison dropped in 15 points to lead four Crusaders in double figures. Sam Heckart added 13, Nathan Bax had 12 and Alex Brandt chipped in with 10.