The De Smet Spartans had a significant height advantage against the Helias Crusaders, but it was their guard play that made the difference Monday night.
"We struggled with a couple of the other guys on miscues on our scouting report and let them get too many easy baskets," Helias coach Joe Rothweiler said after the Crusaders' 54-45 loss at Rackers Fieldhouse.
Helias got exactly what it wanted against De Smet's Sekou Gassama, a 6-foot-10 sophomore, and Yaya Keita, a 6-9 sophomore. They combined for six points in the first half and neither had a rebound by intermission.
When Gassama and Keita each picked up their second foul in the second quarter and went to the bench for the rest of the half, the advantage should have shifted in Helias' favor.
Only, it didn't.
"The quarter didn't end the way we wanted it to," Rothweiler said.
De Smet only had a three-point lead when Gassama joined Keita on the bench, but Evan Asleson knocked down a deep 3-pointer and then scored a layup in transition to push the lead to 26-18.
Jeremiah Walker drove to the basket and scored, and the two De Smet guards combined for a 7-0 run to leave the Crusaders trailing by double digits for the first time in the game.
"We didn't play the smartest game that we could play to come out and win," Rothweiler said.
Nick Brandt made a 3-pointer from the top of the key late in the second quarter, cutting Helias' deficit to 28-21 at halftime.
Despite committing only six turnovers in the loss, the Crusaders shot just 31 percent from the field. They finished 3-of-13 in the third quarter and fell behind 41-27 with eight minutes to play.
"We had our chances, we just couldn't score the ball," Rothweiler said.
With Keita and Gassama in foul trouble, it was Mike Skoff, a 6-4 junior, who picked up the slack inside for the Spartans. He scored all 14 of his points in the second half and added a game-high 12 rebounds for a double-double.
"This is a really good team," Rothweiler said of De Smet, which is ranked No. 4 in Class 5. "That's a team that might make a run in Class 5, and we played them tough when we didn't shoot the ball particularly well."
Gassama also finished with 14 points for De Smet (18-4). He caught an alley oop from Grant Western and finished the dunk to give the Spartans their largest lead, 53-38, with 1:36 to play.
After Helias called a timeout, Colby LeCuru drew a foul and made both free throws. The Crusaders were forced to foul, and De Smet missed the front end of all three one-and-one attempts on its next three possessions.
Helias took advantage, getting a 3 from Jake VanLoo, who then scored another basket off an in-bounds pass with :23 left to cut the deficit to eight points.
"I'm proud of the way we played for the most part," Rothweiler said. "It's another game where we played a really good opponent, and luckily an opponent that's not in our class in the playoffs."
Ben Cooper was the only Crusader to reach double figures, scoring a game-high 18 points. Brandt finished with nine points and VanLoo added eight.
Helias (11-9) plays Thursday at Gateway. The JV game starts at 4:30 p.m., followed by the varsity contest around 6 p.m.
In the JV game, Helias lost 50-48 in a contest that was decided in the closing seconds against De Smet.
Malcolm Davis led the Crusaders with 11 points.