Girls Basketball: Helias girls open season with win against Blair Oaks

Olivia Johanns of Helias goes up for a layup during Tuesday night's game against Blair Oaks at Rackers Fieldhouse.
Olivia Johanns of Helias goes up for a layup during Tuesday night's game against Blair Oaks at Rackers Fieldhouse.

It was about what you'd expect from a season opener.

For most of the first quarter Tuesday night, the Helias Lady Crusaders couldn't stop fouling and the Blair Oaks couldn't stop turning the ball over.

The pace eventually slowed somewhat for both sides, but each team came away with some things to work on after Helias carved out a 55-32 win at Rackers Fieldhouse.

"The girls definitely had a little bit of nerves," said Helias' Sarah Eagan, who got a win in her head-coaching debut.

Blair Oaks had turnovers on its first nine possessions, not even getting off a shot until there was slightly more than three minutes left in the opening period.

The Lady Falcons ended up with 10 turnovers in the frame and finished 0-of-6 on shot attempts. They managed to stay within 15-4, however, thanks to getting into the bonus with 2:52 left in the period.

"I don't even want to see how many points (Blair Oaks) got on free throws or how many times we sent them to the free-throw line," Eagan said. "That's definitely something we have to work on going forward."

Blair Oaks finally got its first field goal with 6:18 left before halftime on a layup by Kellie Fredendall, pulling to within 15-7.

That's as close as the Lady Falcons would get the rest of the game, however, as the Lady Crusaders took a 24-12 lead into the halftime.

In the opening half, Helias made just 9-of-23 shots (39 percent) and Blair Oaks connected on just 2-of-19 (13 percent). But they flipped the script in the opening 21/2 minutes of the third quarter, combining to make 7-of-8 from the field.

Helias hit all four of its shots in that span, getting two layups and a jumper from Mai Nienhueser and a jumper by Claire Ludwig. Blair Oaks got a 3-pointer from Nicole Otto - the Lady Falcons' only one of the game - and a layup by Cassidy Prenger and a three-point play by Fredendall.

"We had a good start," Blair Oaks head coach Kevin Kohler said. "That was an example of us doing what we practice and executing what we do on offense."

The Lady Falcons got within nine points twice in the third quarter - first on two free throws by Fredendall and next on a jumper by her - but couldn't get over the hump.

A 6-0 spurt on three layups - two by Olivia Johanns and one by Luci Francka - put Helias firmly in control and the Lady Crusaders led 40-27 heading to the final stanza.

"The girls were really focused coming out after halftime," Eagan said. "I honestly thought we could have done that a lot more in the game, but we got in foul trouble."

Helias outscored Blair Oaks 15-5 in the fourth quarter to salt the game away.

"There were flashes of defense that I thought were pretty good, but then there were times it really wasn't," Kohler said.

Blair Oaks finished with 26 turnovers, while Helias had 21.

"It's kind of hard to win very many games with 26 turnovers," Kohler said.

Nienhueser led Helias with 14 points, while Francka and Johanns had 11 each. Ellie Rockers grabbed a team-high six rebounds.

Fredendall was the lone Lady Falcon to scored in double figures, dropping in 10 points. Macyn Wilbers added eight points and had a game-high 10 rebounds.

"I have no doubt in my mind we'll get better," Kohler said. "I told them if they'd played their best game and gotten beat by more than 20 points, I'd be worried. But knowing that they didn't play well, we've got things we can work on. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that there are some things we can fix."

Helias has a lengthy break coming up, as the Lady Crusaders are off until a Dec. 5 game against Harrisburg in the Norm Stewart Classic at Columbia College.

Blair Oaks returns to action Monday in the Eugene Tournament. The Lady Falcons are the fourth seed and will play fifth-seeded Tuscumbia at 4:30 p.m.