It wasn’t the best defensive effort of the season for the Helias Lady Crusaders.
But for a stretch in the second quarter, the defense turned the game in favor of the Lady Crusaders.
“That’s something we preach, playing good defense,” Helias coach Garrett Wiggans said Monday night after the Lady Crusaders topped the Owensville Dutchgirls 63-45 in a state-ranked clash at Rackers Fieldhouse. “The goal is to score off our defense and we did that at times tonight.”
Helias opened the game with a 7-0 run and led by as many as 10 points before holding a 15-7 advantage at the end of the first quarter.
But Owensville came out hot to start the second quarter, outscoring Helias 9-3 in the first three minutes to trim the Lady Crusaders’ lead to 18-16.
“That’s a good team, they can shoot it and if you leave them open, they can hurt you,” Wiggans said.
But the Helias defense then took a stand, keeping Owensville off the scoreboard for the next 3:30. The Lady Crusaders totaled 10 points in that span to get their lead to double-digits at 28-16. Helias led 30-19 at the half.
Mikah Edwards had nine points in the first half for the Lady Crusaders, while Adalyn Koelling totaled eight points and nine rebounds.
A basket by Emma Daniels early in the third quarter pulled Owensville to within nine at 30-21. But Helias scored six of the next eight points and led by double figures the remainder of the game.
The Lady Crusaders led by as many as 20 points in the third quarter before taking a 45-27 advantage into the final eight minutes.
Helias took its biggest lead of the night at 52-31 with 6:55 to go in the game on a putback by Ava Morris.
Alison Daniels finished with 15 points to lead Owensville (8-4), tied for 10th in the Class 4 rankings. Emma Daniels added 13.
“We have to tighten some things up on the defensive end, we can’t lose shooters,” Wiggans said.
Koelling totaled 22 points and 13 rebounds for the Lady Crusaders.
“Another double-double for the young lady, she churns those out a lot,” Wiggans said. “The 13 rebounds is great to see, when she got close to the basketball, we knew it was going to be in our possession.”
Morris finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds for Helias, who finished with a 37-16 advantage on the boards
“That’s going to win you basketball games,” Wiggans said.
Helias (12-1), ranked No. 1 in Class 5, is back in action Wednesday night at home against Class 5 No. 7 Lutheran: St. Charles (11-2).
“It’s going to be a test, it will be nice to be tested by a St. Louis team at home for once,” Wiggans said. “We have to have a good practice (today) and clean up some things going into Wednesday.”
The JV game will start at 5:30 p.m., followed by the varsity contest around 7:15 p.m.
There was no JV game Monday.
III
After watching the video, Helias junior Ava Morris finished with 24 rebounds -- including 18 on the offensive end -- in a win last Thursday against Sedalia Smith-Cotton. Those are both school records.
A story in last Friday’s News Tribune said Morris had 23 rebounds.