Flathead Crusaders claim national title
The Flathead Valley Crusaders, a local home-schooled basketball team, made a bit of history in February when they overcame injury and made a late-season push to the Montana Christian Athletic Association boys state title. They weren’t done. From March 16-20 they joined 407 other basketball teams at the National Christian Homeschool Basketball Championships in Springfield, Missouri.
Five games in five days; all wins. The Crusaders came away with the D3 National Title, beating teams from Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan and, at the end, St. Louis.
“There’s usually an LA team in there,” Crusaders coach Mark Kenney said last week. “This was more like Middle America-South: Texas, Indiana, Kentucky, that whole range. ” Speaking of range, Jon Dannic hit 44 percent of his 3-point attempts in Springfield (14 of 32); he averaged a team-high 17.
4 points for the five games. Patrick Bonner, at 6-foot-1 giving up 5-6 inches at times in the low post, averaged 13. 2 points and 12.
5 rebounds. Zeph Stutzman was good for 12. 4 points per outing.