Halftime was a good time to "coach "em up."
A putback by Kelsi Bernskoetter beat the buzzer to give the Helias Lady Crusaders a 19-11 lead Friday night at intermission against the Moberly Lady Spartans at Rackers Fieldhouse.
The eight-point advantage was a positive. But against a Moberly team that had won just one game this season, it wasn't quite the first half Helias coach Doug Light was looking for from his team.
"We talked about things we needed to do better," Light said. "We had some silly turnovers, especially in the second quarter, and we were doing things that are uncharacteristic for us.
"It was just time to start playing together. We were playing a little bit on an island, one individual, not five players as a team and we had to fix that."
And it got fixed. The final two quarters were better than the first two as the Lady Crusaders pulled away for a 49-24 victory against the Lady Spartans.
"We held them to 11 points, so we were doing good things on the defensive end, it was a matter of doing better on the offensive end," Light said.
Helias scored the game's first nine points, capped by a 3-pointer by Meghan Nappier, and led 11-5 after one quarter. But things started to go awry late in that first quarter and carried over through the end of the half.
"Moberly was hanging around and I think they had some momentum," Light said. "They were coming after us."
Five Lady Crusaders scored points in the third quarter as Helias took a 33-17 advantage into the final period. Helias was helped by Moberly's foul problems as the Lady Crusaders were in the double-bonus because of 10 Lady Spartans fouls with a little more than a minute left in the third quarter.
Helias was just 8-of-16 from the line in the third quarter, but did hit 7-of-10 from the stripe in the final period.
"We knocked enough of them down," Light said. "We hit them down the stretch, that was the big thing."
Darcy Baird hit all four of her shots and had eight of her game-high 12 points in the first two quarters to lead the Lady Crusaders. Reghan Stuart had 10 points to pace Moberly (1-8).
One highlight of the night for Helias came in the final two minutes of the game when Katlyn Cowell got on the floor for the first time this season. The junior was penciled in as a starter in the preseason before suffering a leg injury.
She took one shot Friday night, drilling a 3-pointer from the wing.
"She's really going to help us," Light said. "It's going to be a step-by-step process with small steps."
That will continue next week when the Lady Crusaders (8-2) will play at the Union Tournament. Helias opens against Borgia at 7:15 p.m. Monday.
"It's going to be a tough one," Light said.
Borgia is No. 8 in the latest Missouri Basketball Coaches Association/Mosports.com Class 4 rankings.
In Friday's junior varsity game, Ashley Rehagen scored 10 points to lead Helias to a 50-8 victory against Moberly. The Lady Crusaders (7-0) will host their JV tournament next week.