When the Jefferson Bank Holiday Tournament wraps up Wednesday, the Helias Lady Crusaders will have wrapped up more than half of their regular-season schedule.
And while the Lady Crusaders haven’t gotten off to the start they wanted this season, it’s been a good, if intense, learning experience.
“It hasn’t been what we were looking for, what the team was looking for,” Helias coach Garrett Wiggans said as the Lady Crusaders (6-5) get set to take on the St. Joseph Benton Lady Cardinals (5-3) in the opening game of the Jefferson Bank Holiday Tournament at 2:30 p.m. today at Capital City High School. “We’d like to have more wins and fewer losses, but we’re preparing ourselves for the playoffs and prepare ourselves for a tough district.
“Playing this schedule will only help us.”
A handful of the losses have come late, where the Lady Crusaders — who start two juniors and three sophomores — came up just short of a victory.
“We’ve been right there, things just didn’t go our way,” Wiggans said. “We need to get better from that, learn from that.”
Coming up on the short end of the close contests could be frustrating.
“In any sport or competition, when you’re right there but the score isn’t in your favor, it’s frustrating,” Wiggans said. “But the girls are resilient, we can’t hang our heads because nobody is going to feel sorry for us. We have to keep pressing forward at every practice and every game.
“I need to improve to get the girls into the right positions to be successful.”
Helias has been off since dropping a 46-42 decision last Monday to Staley at the 12 Courts of Christmas in Kansas City. The Lady Crusaders tried to take advantage of the time off after the busy start to the season.
“We’ve got a few girls who are banged-up just a little bit,” Wiggans said. “We took a few days off, had a short walk-through and we’ll be ready to go (today).”
Benton has become a fixture at the tournament, playing more times than any team with the exceptions of Helias and Jefferson City.
“They get after it on both ends of the floor,” Wiggans said. “They’re a good team, they’re going to come here ready to go.”
The Lady Crusaders have no specific goals for the three-day tournament.
“We just want to play better,” Wiggans said. “We don’t have to coach effort, the girls are always giving that. We just need to be better with the basketball.”
Helias and Benton are both receiving votes in the latest Class 4 state rankings by the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association.