Crusaders advance to quarterfinals

ROLLA, Mo. - For the Helias Crusaders, the season to this point has been about earning respect.

Now that they're to a point where they're doing that, it's time to readjust the goals.

The Crusaders continued their late-season surge Tuesday night at Missouri S&T, dropping St. Francis Borgia 71-64 in a Class 4 sectional contest.

"We haven't been ranked in the top 10 in the state all season and we've used that as motivation," Helias coach Josh Buffington said. "This is going to force people to put us in the top 10, because we're still playing."

The Crusaders (19-9) earned a spot in Saturday's 2:45 p.m. quarterfinal game at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, where they'll take on the Glendale Falcons (19-9).

"Our guys know that we're three wins away from our ultimate goal, but we can't get to that third one until we first get past a tough Glendale team that has great tradition and has two really dynamic players," Buffington said.

To get a shot at Glendale, Helias had to get past another team with tons of tradition. And things didn't look so good early on, as Borgia (20-8) raced out to an 18-10 lead after the first 6 1/2 minutes.

"At the beginning of the year we might have come down and tried to force the issue a little bit in a situation like that," Buffington said. "But we just let the guys know that, "There is so much time left in this game and we're not making all our rotations defensively and our shot selection hasn't been great.' We started taking it one possession at a time from that point on."

Helias, which was down 19-13 after one quarter, turned it on at the end of the first half. Down 28-20, the Crusaders put together a 10-0 run that included a layup by Landon Harrison, a three-point play and a layup from Nathan Bax, a layup by Weston Porter and 1-of-2 free throws by Harrison.

The Crusaders settled for a 30-all tie at halftime, which was big considering starting center Trevor Koelling had picked up three fouls and had played roughly six minutes.

"It was definitely a big team win - we had guys in foul trouble, but we had other guys make key plays," Harrison said.

Helias outscored Borgia 17-11 in the third quarter to take a 47-41 lead, but the Knights got a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws to start the final quarter to provide a sense of the drama to come.

There were five lead changes in the fourth and the Crusaders eventually tied it at 54 on a pair of free throws by Koelling with 3:06 left.

Neither team scored the rest of regulation, although the Crusaders did have a great chance to win it at the end.

Sam Husting went up for a 3-pointer with time winding down and when the shot was just off the mark, Harrison skied for the rebound. He gathered it in mid-air, only to have in knocked loose when he was knocked to the deck. Time ran out as the officials avoided making any call, sending it to overtime.

In the extra session, the Crusaders won it by shoring up something that had been a concern in regulation.

The Crusaders, normally a hot-shooting team from the free-throw line, had made just 12-of-21 to that point. But in overtime they were a scorching 14-of-16 to secure the victory.

"We're human," Buffington said. "When a kid misses a free throw, that's not intentional, they're doing the best they can. We knew we were struggling at the line and could have had some separation before that point, but didn't. To hit that many in overtime, that's more like us."

The lead changed hands four times in the extra period, the last time coming when Porter drilled a 3 with 2:04 left to make it 59-57.

"They were in that 2-3 (zone) and Landon saw that guy in the back sneak up and he found me, and I was fortunate enough to hit it," Porter said. "It was really fun to hit it and see everybody go crazy afterward."

Adam Bax blocked a layup attempt on the ensuing Borgia possession and Nathan Bax grabbed the rebound and made the ensuing free throws, and Helias was on its way.

That 3 was Helias' only field goal in overtime, as the rest came at the line as the Crusaders kept hitting free throws to preserve their lead. Harrison was 6-of-6 in the frame and Husting was 4-of-4.

"Coach told us going into overtime that the tougher team was going to win it - we just had to keep battling," Harrison said. "We were the team that made more plays and won it."

Helias ended up outscoring Borgia 17-10 in the extra frame to move on

"To do it against Borgia us special because I have the utmost respect for them - their players, their coach, the way they play the game," Buffington said.

Harrison racked up a game-high 23 points, while Husting and Porter added 12 apiece. Nathan Bax added 11 points and tied for the game high with seven rebounds. Adam Bax also had seven rebounds.

Alex Movila, who scored eight points in the first quarter alone, and Luke Deline had 14 points apiece to pace Borgia. Gus Kleekamp chipped in with 13 points.