Lady Crusaders struggle to score in loss to Benton

Ellie Rockers of the Helias Lady Crusaders tangles with Gabby Fuller of St. Joseph Benton for control of a loose ball during Friday night's game at Rackers Fieldhouse.
Ellie Rockers of the Helias Lady Crusaders tangles with Gabby Fuller of St. Joseph Benton for control of a loose ball during Friday night's game at Rackers Fieldhouse.

Defense wins games, defense wins championships. But

"I've never heard of a team winning when the score is 0-0," Helias coach Alan Lepper said Friday night after the Lady Crusaders dropped a 49-30 decision to the St. Joseph Benton Lady Cardinals in the semifinals of the State Farm Holiday Hoops Invitational at Rackers Fieldhouse.

"You have to be able to score at some point and right now, we're not able to score enough when we play a quality team."

Just four Lady Crusaders tallied points in the loss, with two of them scoring two points each.

"It looks like almost everybody is looking for somebody else to score," Lepper said. "They took us out of what we wanted to do and we needed to find a way to score baskets and we didn't do it."

Benton opened the game with a 6-0 run and led 10-2 before Helias closed the first quarter with a 4-0 spurt to cut the deficit to 10-6.

The Lady Crusaders closed the gap to two at 13-11 midway through the second quarter, keyed in no small part by forcing turnovers on five straight Lady Cardinal possessions.

"I'm not disappointed in our defense," Lepper said. "For the most part, we played pretty well."

But Benton settled down and took a 20-15 advantage into halftime. All nine of Helias' points in the second quarter came on free throws.

One of the things Lepper stressed to his team at halftime was putting points on the board.

"We walked about looking to score, wanting to score," he said. "But that didn't happen."

The Lady Cardinals began to pull away in the third quarter, opening with an 8-2 run and closing with a 9-3 spurt to take a 37-22 advantage into the final quarter.

Jayde Williams hit a pair of 3-pointers in the quarter for the Lady Cardinals.

"We lost her and we had to know where the shooters are," Lepper said.

Benton led by as many as 21 points in the fourth quarter.

"In order for us to be an elite program, we have to play like elite programs play," Lepper said. "We did not play like an elite program.

"We haven't really beaten an elite team yet and we have to learn how to do that."

Gabby Fuller paced Benton (10-0) with 12 points, while Mia Henderson finished with 10. Benton will face Jefferson City in the title game at 6 p.m. today at Fleming Fieldhouse.

Ellie Rockers finished with a game-high 14 points for Helias (4-6), while Emma Wyrick totaled 12.

The Lady Crusaders will take on the Hickman Kewpies in the third-place game this afternoon.

"We will let this one go after tonight and go after a win (today)," Lepper said. "We have to learn from this, but not dwell on it."

Game time is 3 p.m. at Fleming Fieldhouse.