HENDERSONVILLE The Hendersonville Christian Academy girls prep basketball team can already see improvement happening on the court.

Hendersonville Christian Academy sophomore Lauren Batey releases a jump shot during second-quarter action. Batey finished with five points.

However, it didn’t help the Lady Crusaders win their season opener on Thursday evening as they suffered a 70-40 loss to visiting Nashville Christian in a Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association Hall of Champions contest.

“We put up 40 points against what I thought was a pretty darn good team,” HCA head coach Jack Keller said. “That was a real surprising part. We had some points put up by girls who are getting increased minutes that they didn’t have last year. It was good to see the ball spread around. We didn’t have a single player on the team that we had to look to get the majority of our points. We’ve had to deal with that in years past.”

Nine different Lady Crusaders contributed offensively, led by sophomore Desi Munson’s nine-point effort. Juniors Lindsie Mierop and April Wooley finished with six points each.

Sophomores Lauren Batey and Morgan Bell scored five points each, but both players fouled out in the fourth quarter as the Lady Crusaders’ foul trouble caught up with them late in the game. It allowed Nashville Christian (2-0) to take 39 free-throw attempts.

“I felt that my kids fought really hard,” Keller said. “We probably fought a little bit too hard on the fouling, and got ourselves not only in a little bit of foul trouble, but 26 of their points came from the free-throw line. That’s tough to overcome.”

The Lady Eagles ran out to a 17-5 lead after one quarter, but HCA pulled to within five points following Mierop’s second field goal of the second quarter as the Lady Crusaders were able to break Nashville Christian’s full-court pressure with more regularity.

“They pressed us pretty much the entire game, and quite frankly, I’m glad that they did,” Keller said. “It helped us. It helped us to get better. We had some great success with it at times, and at times, we struggled. I can’t fault what the kids gave. We just ran into a pretty darn good team.”

Hendersonville Christian Academy junior April Wooley shoots over Nashville Christian’s Emily Bartlett during fourth-quarter action. Wooley scored six points.

HCA was unable to stay within striking distance in the third quarter as the Lady Eagles began the second half on a 10-0 run to take a 41-21 lead with 4:24 left in the third quarter. Mia Curtis scored five consecutive points during the run, and she finished with 16 for the Lady Eagles.

Sonja Shelton scored a game-high 23 points for Nashville Christian. Ten of those came in the first quarter.

“I’m glad that we had this kind of game right out of the box,” Keller said. “I’m glad Nashville Christian attacked us so we could work through that kind of strategy. That’s what we see through most of the season, and sometimes those things are difficult to simulate in practice with a smaller team like we have.”

Senior Ali Turc scored four points for the Lady Crusaders, while Kendall Smith and junior Haley Thornton scored two points each. Senior Marian Silva finished with one point.

The Lady Crusaders will participate in a TSSAA Hall of Champions playday at Trousdale County on Saturday. Hendersonville Christian will face Trousdale County at 11 a.m. and Monterey at 2 p.m.

HCA will open the regular season at Battle Ground Academy on Dec. 1.

Reach Chris Brooks at cbrooks@tennessean.com or at 615-575-7118. Follow him on Twitter @CB_SumnerSports.

Hendersonville Christian Academy senior Ali Turc elevates for an interior shot between Nashville Christian’s Faith Martin (at left) and Mia Curtis during first-quarter action. Turc scored four points.

NASHVILLE CHRISTIAN (70) – Sonja Shelton 23, Mia Curtis 16, Brittan Jarrell 8, Makenna Paszek 7, Abbie Page 6, Morgan Forte 5, Faith Martin 4, Tollie Boone 1.

HENDERSONVILLE CHRISTIAN (40) – Desi Munson 9, Lindsie Mierop 6, April Wooley 6, Lauren Batey 5, Morgan Bell 5, Ali Turc 4, Kendall Smith 2, Haley Thornton 2, Marian Silva 1.

Half: 31-21, Nashville Christian. Three-point goals: Nashville Christian 1 (Page 1), Hendersonville Christian 1 (Batey 1). Records: Nashville Christian 2-0, Hendersonville Christian 0-1.