CEDAR RAPIDS — To say the class 3A regional playoff road was a tough one for the Anamosa girls basketball team would be a major understatement after what unfolded in Cedar Rapids Saturday, February 18, on the home floor of the defending 3A state champion Xavier Saints.

“We all knew coming into this ball game that nobody expected us to do much of anything against a powerful team like Xavier so we tried to approach it as an us against the world-type game,” said Raider girls basketball coach Jack Leighty after he watched his team dismantled in every facet of the game in a lopsided 75-15 defeat at the hands of the Saints. “It didn’t work. Actually, everything we tried throwing out there didn’t work. It was one of those nights where we couldn’t do anything right and it seemed Xavier could do no wrong. And the score reflected that too.”

Anamosa struggled mightily against an extremely powerful and aggressive Saints press in the early going and the resulting turnovers led to countless easy baskets for the third-ranked hosts.

“It was key for us to at the very least to get off to a solid start to build a little bit of confidence and that didn’t happen either,” said Leighty. “We couldn’t get the ball past half court most of the time and when we did, we sure didn’t get very many good or open looks at the basket. They seemed to have 10 girls on the floor to our five. They were everywhere and our passes seemed to find their players instead of ours most of the time.”

The Saints raced to a huge 22-0 first quarter lead before Anamosa’s Traci Dirks got the visitors on the scoreboard with 45 seconds remaining in the opening frame.

“Wow did we ever need that basket,” said Leighty as Cedar Rapids Xavier took a 24-4 lead after the first eight minutes of action with Dirks adding another hoop for the Raiders just before the first quarter horn. “You just have to hand it to Xavier. I can’t imagine a better 3A team in the state of Iowa than them. They play the game at a very, very high level. It’s a level of basketball we someday will hope to approach. We know as long as we’re a 3A school, we’re going to see this team year after year if we want any shot at making the tournament. Maybe one of these days, maybe someday soon, we’ll give them a run for their money.”

Xavier’s Sarah Black, Jennifer Potts, Bailey Dorrington and Sara Clancy attacked Anamosa with dizzying offensive moves all while playing staunch defense not allowing the Raiders even a glimmer of open space to dribble the basketball or release a shot.

Black led the first half assault for the Saints scoring 11 points while Potts added nine more, including a pair of long treys. Clancy scored eight more as 10 different Saint players scored points in the first 16 minutes of action.

“As a coach I’ve never experienced something like this,” said Leighty of the 60-point drubbing.
“As a player I have, so I know how much our girls are hurting right now. Especially the seniors.
They didn’t want to end their home season with that hurtful loss against Starmont and they sure didn’t want to end their basketball careers with a lopsided loss like this.”

Anamosa continued to struggle through the second quarter as well as the Saints piled on 22 more points to take a insurmountable 46-7 lead into the locker room at the halftime break.

Bryn Gerber added a basket for the visitors in the second stanza while Kelsi Dearborn also hit a free throw in the frame.

The second half saw Saints head coach Tom Lilly use his bench thoroughly and the pressure didn’t let up in the least with the backups on the court for the hosts.

“It was amazing,” said Leighty. “It was just waves of them coming at us all the time. It didn’t matter who they had out there, they played well and made things very, very difficult for us.”

Anamosa’s turnover problems continued in the third quarter as well but the Raiders did manage to slow down the Xavier offensive express a bit limiting the Saints to 16 points in the third frame and trailed 59-13 entering the final stretch.

In the fourth, Xavier went on a 16-2 run to close out the 60-point triumph and advance to the 3A regional semi-final where the Saints defeated Marion 55-36 Monday, February 20. That win closes Xavier to within a game of another 3A state tournament berth in Des Moines as the region 7 title game will face the Saints against Dubuque Wahlert in the U.S. Cellular Center Saturday, February 25, with the tip set for 7:00 p.m.

“We have been out-sized by pretty much every team we’ve played this season and that was just magnified in this contest,” said Leighty. “Our girls battled as hard as they could, but going against a team that has six girls 5’10’’ or taller is just too much to ask physically. We battled, like we always have and I’m proud of the girls for that. They didn’t quit and never threw in the towel in this one when it would have been very easy to have done so even in the very first quarter.”

Dirks led the Anamosa offense with six points before fouling out in the fourth quarter and also grabbed six rebounds.

The loss closes the books on the 2005-2006 Raider girls basketball season with a 3-19 record overall.

ANAMOSA — Much like their first contest back on January 17, the upstart Anamosa boys basketball team gave a talented Monticello club all they could handle, this time hosting the Panthers Tuesday, February 14, on the Raiders’ home floor.

The Valentine’s Day special saw no love lost between the two bitter rivals as both clubs battled extremely hard, but in the end it was Anamosa being faced with a 58-50 loss.

“I know I have said this after every game, but this game I’m not only proud of our effort, I’m proud of the way our kids acted after the game,” said Raider boys basketball coach Kevin Barnes.
“For the first time all season long, I saw pain in our faces after the game. Our kids really hurt after losing this one, which indicates to me they thought they could have won. I don’t think we have had that all year.”

Against the Panthers, one of the Tri-Rivers Conference’s top teams, the Raiders (8-11, 8-8) not only more than held their own, which they also did in Monticello last month, but had a shot to win late in the game before key baskets and free throws by the visitors pulled out the eight-point triumph.

“I think the way we have played the past three weeks and winning some games against some good teams has given is the confidence that we can play this game and at times, play it pretty darn well.”

MONTICELLO — It wasn’t supposed to end like this for Anamosa senior Lee Hardersen and for junior Mike Levasseur, a state wrestling berth was so close he could almost taste it.

But in the end, neither of the Raider wrestlers who qualified for the class 2A district tournament in Monticello Saturday, February 18, would continue their seasons in Des Moines this week becoming the first Anamosa wrestlers to take to the state mats at Wells Fargo Arena.

“Coming in I really liked our chances,” said Anamosa wrestling coach Ron Timp. “But in the end it just didn’t quite work out. For Lee, he never even got the opportunity and that’s really tough to take.”