The Helias Crusaders will rarely be the taller team on the basketball court on a given night.
But they were Wednesday, and they took full advantage of it in the rebounding column.
The Crusaders nearly doubled up the Republic Tigers on the boards and made the most of their second chances on the offensive end, overcoming a sluggish start to win their home opener 71-58 at Rackers Fieldhouse.
"We write on the board before the game that our shots equal a pass," Helias coach Joe Rothweiler said. "We consider our shots a pass. We obviously want them to go in, but we really put an emphasis on going after the ball."
Helias finished the game with 29 rebounds and limited Republic to just 15 boards.
"While we're not the tallest team, a lot of times it's harder to block out a quicker, athletic team," Rothweiler said. "We have some guys who have a knack for going and grabbing rebounds."
The Crusaders had to shake off some rust in the first quarter, as they were playing their first game since Dec. 7 in the Arvest Classic. Helias had just four points in the game's first six minutes.
"We looked a little timid out there at first," Rothweiler said. "We haven't played in 11 days. But there have been a couple games where we've come out slow."
Republic had its largest lead of the game at 12-4, but Jeff Szumigala knocked down 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions in the final 90 seconds of the first quarter, helping Helias close the gap to 12-10.
Helias shot 7-of-21 from 3 in the win, but the Crusaders shot 73 percent (19-of-26) inside the arc.
"The way they play defense, they really clog up the paint," Rothweiler said. "They want you to settle for 3s. If you do that, you play to their tempo. We did that last year against them. We hit 16 3s and still lost.
"I told them, 'We can get a 3 at any time, but I really want you guys to focus on getting into the paint.'"
The offensive rebounding became crucial in the second quarter. Marcus Anthony scored a putback off his own miss, then Caleb Justice added another basket following an offensive rebound while drawing a foul with 6:31 left in the quarter, putting Helias ahead 17-14.
"We try to create some turnovers and we try to create some extra possessions off of offensive rebounds," Rothweiler said. "When we do that, we're good, and we've got to continue to do that."
Helias held onto the ball for the final minute of the first half, setting up one last play. Malcolm Davis drove toward the basket, then passed the ball back out to Desmond White, who drained a 3 with :01 left to give the Crusaders a 34-23 halftime lead.
"That was a huge lift going into halftime," Rothweiler said.
Anthony dominated the scoring column for Helias in the second half. He scored nine consecutive points for the Crusaders in the third quarter, then had nine straight points again in the fourth quarter.
After scoring just two points in the first quarter, Anthony finished with a game-high 31 points on 11-of-17 shooting.
"He's so athletic and such a good basketball player," Rothweiler said. " He has the ability to dominate most nights, and as long as he's locked in and ready to go, there's not really anybody that can stay in front of him."
Helias led 54-43 after three quarters and went ahead by as many as 19 points late in the fourth quarter, before Rothweiler subbed the rest of the bench players into the game.
Colby LeCuru also reached double figures for the Crusaders, finishing with 13 points. White added eight points to go with a team-high five rebounds.
Race Looney scored a team-high 20 points before fouling out for Republic (3-2). Tucker Thomas tallied 16 points on 8-of-11 shooting and Drew McMillin chipped in 10 points.
Helias (3-1) will play at 9 p.m. Saturday against Sedalia Smith-Cotton in the State Fair Holiday Shootout in Sedalia.
In Wednesday's JV game, Helias dropped a 48-29 decision to Republic.
Scott Haslag finished with six points for Helias (2-2), while Noah Voss and Hayden Pfeneger each had five points.