There wasn't much of a doubt Helias' Landon Harrison and Father Tolton's Isaiah Wilson were going to be the game's leading scorers. It was going to come down to their supporting casts.
The Crusaders nearly had a total of five players score in double figures, but the Trailblazers had strong fourth quarters from Jonny Berndt and Beau Washer in Friday's 71-67 win at Rackers Fieldhouse.
"We just did not defend well tonight as a group," Helias coach Josh Buffington said. "When you don't defend late in the season, and you continue to struggle on the boards and with loose balls, you're going to get beat."
Helias' supporting cast was short-handed Friday. Starting forward Nathan Bax missed the game due to illness, leaving the Crusaders with one true post player - Dalton Weaver - in the lineup.
"It hurts when you're losing a guy that's been getting some double-doubles as of late," Buffington said.
Father Tolton led 56-48 with 5:45 to play. After Weaver hit a pair of free throws, Harrison scored the Crusaders' next 10 points.
He knocked down his third 3-pointer of the game and then hit a contested jumper against Wilson to trim the lead to 62-60 with 2:28 left in the game.
"He made some big-time plays to get us back in it," Buffington said of Harrison, who scored a game-high 29 points.
Berndt then came up big for the Trailblazers. The freshman, who finished with 11 points and made a 3 from the corner earlier in the fourth, added a baseline jumper to push Father Tolton's lead to 64-60 with 2:12 to go.
"He was in our scouting report and we just flat out lost him on a few possessions," Buffington said. "He made us pay."
Nick Brandt followed with a 3 from the left corner to cut Father Tolton's lead to 64-63 with 1:24 to play.
The Trailblazers and Crusaders traded baskets on putbacks by Matt Boyer and Marcus Anthony on the next two possessions. Boyer then made 1-of-2 free throws with :31.5 to play, with Father Tolton leading 67-65.
Harrison brought the ball up the court, but as he crossed the half-court line, he was trapped by a pair of Father Tolton defenders who forced a jump ball. The possession arrow gave the ball back to the Trailblazers, who then finished the game at the free-throw line.
Washer went 4-of-4 at the free-throw line in the final 20 seconds to give Father Tolton a two-possession lead.
"We got it to a one-possession game three times, and we just went into a bit of a panic mode defensively," Buffington said. "All three of those possessions, we just couldn't get one more stop that we needed."
Helias trailed 14-12 after the first quarter, then outscored Father Tolton 19-15 in the second quarter to lead 31-29 at halftime.
Alex Buschjost made back-to-back 3s in the third quarter to give Helias a 39-34 lead, but Father Tolton answered with four 3-point play opportunities - converting on three of them - in the quarter alone to lead 50-48 after three quarters.
"They hit some dagger 3s in the second half, but that's not what beat us," Buffington said. "What beat us was how many layups and and-ones we were giving up.
"We weren't rotating down on the weak side. That's really all it was to it. Our weak side guys, a lot of the time, their feet were stuck in quicksand."
Wilson led Father Tolton (14-9) with 17 points and Boyer had 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting.
Buschjost reached double-figures with 10 points and Brandt and Anthony each had nine points for Helias.
Friday's game was Senior Night for the Crusaders, who honored Weaver and Drew Boessen. Weaver played all 32 minutes and finished with nine points and eight rebounds.
"Dalton gave us everything he had," Buffington said. "He did a great job for us tonight."
The Crusaders were outrebounded 31-28 and shot just 10-of-19 from the free-throw line.
"It's a poor combination when you're not defending, you're struggling on the boards and you're struggling to convert at the line," Buffington said.
"We're going to need those three things come district time to advance," Buffington added.
Helias (18-6) hosts Rock Bridge next Friday to conclude the regular season.
In the JV game, Helias scored 23 points in the second quarter to surge past Father Tolton in a 69-37 win. Carter Toebben and Jake VanLoo each had 16 points, while Josh Kliethermes added 10 points for Helias, which improved to 16-3.