Helias coach Joe Rothweiler doesn't want the Helias Crusaders to make playing slow, slug-it-out type of games a frequent occurrence.
But with the Jefferson City Jays visiting Rackers Fieldhouse on Tuesday night, that's what the Crusaders had to do for the second time in two games.
Helias led for nearly the entire 32 minutes, but almost had to play an extra period as Jefferson City missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer to extend the Crusaders' winning streak against the Jays to four with a 58-55 victory.
"We shot ourselves in the foot about 20 times down the stretch, but we also made a ton of huge plays," Rothweiler said. "Our guys battled. That was a great fourth quarter they put together. X's- and O's-wise we did a lot of good things. We kind of let them creep back into it when we had a chance to put them away, but outside of that, our guys battled. That's what they've been doing lately."
Helias ratcheted up the pace for a couple minutes during the fourth quarter, scoring eight straight points to lead 49-40 with 3:51 remaining.
Isaac Johnson got the run going with a corner 3-pointer and Nick Brandt followed with a quick layup after a Jefferson City miss. Ben Cooper added a corner 3 to close out the run.
"We wanted the pace to be faster," Rothweiler said. "We never really got the pace to where we wanted to all night. We want it to be a lot faster. We went small because we knew that would give them a little bit of trouble if we spread them out."
The Jays didn't go away, though.
Ben Folz answered by pulling up for 3 at the top of the key and added a pair of free throws with 1:35 left to cut it to 51-49.
Folz had 13 points and seven rebounds off the bench.
"We didn't expect Ben to play a whole lot tonight," Jefferson City coach Mark Anderson said. "He's been battling an injury from the Waynesville game and he's actually been on crutches. We were expecting a couple minutes here and there from him. I think the adrenaline helped. I think the atmosphere helped."
Helias never got its lead to more than four the rest of the way.
With :05.1 on the clock, Brandt made 1-of-2 free throws to make it 58-55. Kaidyn Johnson, who started in place of Folz, grabbed the rebound off the missed free throw, got the ball up to Folz who passed it across the floor to Sterling DeSha for a 3-point attempt in front of the Jays' student section. The shot clanged off the back of the iron.
"From our angle we thought it was good," Anderson said. "We did too many little things. We made too many little mistakes throughout the course of the game and they punished us for pretty much every one of them and they were just a little bit better tonight."
The Jays slowed the Crusaders right off the bat, defending the Crusaders for nearly a minute on the first possession of the game and getting a steal.
But Cooper stole it right back and Brandt got a layup for the game's first points. Cooper scored a game-high 18 points, while Brandt had 15.
A Cooper 3-pointer gave Helias its first lead at 5-4 with 4:46 on the clock and the Crusaders were up 14-9 by the end of the first quarter.
Then the Jays tightened back up on defense and tied the game on three occasions in the second quarter.
A Brennan Jeffries layup knotted it up at 16, Michael Appiah-Brefo tied it at 18 with a layup and added another layup to tie it at 20. Jeffries led the Jays with 16 points and Appiah-Brefo scored 12.
VanLoo, who scored 11 points, made the halftime score 22-20 Helias with a late layup.
"In the first half I thought we guarded well," Anderson said. " Our defensive effort in the first half was really good. I thought we executed the game plan pretty well in the first half. We had some breakdowns in the second half."
The pace was becoming familiar to the Crusaders, who defeated Rolla 53-48 last week.
"It's definitely something we can hold our head up about," Rothweiler said. "We did it at Rolla on Thursday and we've battled through lower scoring games. I don't want us to get into the rhythm like that and play that way, but it's good to know you can win those games, too."
Helias (8-6) is off to Columbia on Friday to play Father Tolton for the second time this season. The Trailblazers won the first matchup 66-57 on Dec. 7.
Jefferson City (8-8) will play Friday at Lebanon.
Helias won the JV game 55-39. Damon Johanns led the Crusaders with 15 points.
In the freshman contest, Jefferson City won 58-35. Michael Onunkwor scored 13 points to lead the Jays. Also scoring in double figures was Daniel Woodard with 10 points.