If it was one big thing, they would fix it.
But various little things can be harder to deal with.
"I can't put my finger on any one thing, I think it's a combination of a lot of little things that accumulated into what the game turned into," Helias coach Alan Lepper said Friday after the Lady Crusaders dropped a 48-35 decision to the Blue Springs South Lady Jaguars in the opening round of the Jefferson Bank Holiday Hoops Classic at Rackers Fieldhouse.
"It's not one player, it's a combination. We just have to work hard and fix some things."
It was a decent first quarter for the Lady Crusaders, who led 7-6 after the first eight minutes. The second quarter wasn't so bad as Blue Springs South used an 8-0 run to take a 22-19 advantage into halftime.
But the third quarter, the pace of the game completely got away from the Lady Crusaders.
"It sure did, they took us out of what we wanted to do," Lepper said.
The Lady Crusaders scored just two points in the opening 5:20 of the second half as the Lady Jaguars extended their advantage to 36-23 with one quarter to play. After committing just seven turnovers in the first half, Helias added five to that total in the third quarter.
"It's hard to win ballgames when you don't score," Lepper said.
Helias was 3-of-17 on 3-pointers in the game to go along with a 10-of-18 effort at the free-throw line,
"We're better shooters than that on 3s, we're better shooters than that at the free-throw line," Lepper said. "That's nothing we need to fix, tonight we just weren't a good shooting team."
Blue Springs South led by as many as 18 points in the fourth quarter.
Tiyani Rollins finished with 12 points to pace Blue Springs South (8-0, No. 7 in Class 5). Jaidynn Mason added 10 points for the Lady Jaguars, providing a strong slashing presence to the Blue Springs South offense.
"She's really creative in scoring and in dishing it off to her teammates," Lepper said.
Lindsey Byers and Kylie Bernskoetter had 10 points each for the Lady Crusaders. Byers also pulled down 11 rebounds for her third double-double in the last four games.
Helias (3-3) will face St. Joseph Benton (2-8) in the loser's bracket semifinals at 4 p.m. today. Benton fell 48-43 to Blair Oaks in its first round game Friday.
"The kids played hard, we just have to go another step harder," Lepper said.
Blue Springs South will face Blair Oaks in the winner's bracket semifinals at 7 p.m. today.
The tournament will conclude Sunday.