ANAMOSA— Fans could feel it just seconds after the opening tip that something was different in the air in Anamosa Tuesday, November 27.

Once Colten Kelly and his Anamosa boys basketball teammates began carving up the Monticello defense early in the first quarter with a variety of amazing moves that also included some long-range marksmanship, fans knew the Raiders were going to snap their lengthy eight-game losing skid against the rival Panthers and make this a basketball night to remember.

Ironically, that’s exactly what played out on the court as not only did the Anamosa boys defeat a tough and talented Panther team for the first time since February 11, 2003, but Kelly proved to be absolutely unstoppable tallying a game-high 30 points weaving his way through Monticello defenders all night long in guiding his Anamosa team to a very impressive and hard-earned season-opening 60-46 victory.

“This was a pretty good start,” said Raider boys basketball coach Kevin Barnes, who saw his team defeat the Panthers for the first time since stars Austin Bildstein and Stuart Williams were members of his club helping Anamosa to a 47-40 triumph at Monticello on a brutally cold evening scoring 20 and 14 points, respectively. “Let’s see. We beat our rival. We do it in front of our home crowd. Nine guys contribute, six of whom have no varsity experience to speak of. We have 16 assists and only 10 turnovers and our three letter winners were terrific. I consider that a pretty good start.”

The start to the game itself was pretty impressive as well as Kelly was sensational scoring the Raiders’ first 11 points as Anamosa built an 11-5 lead before star letter winning guard Tony Lueken drilled a jumper with 3:55 remaining in the first quarter giving the hosts a 13-5 advantage.

“Colten was sensational,” said Barnes. “Skyler and Jason really stepped up too when Tony got into foul trouble. We had to sit Tony the entire second quarter. Monticello came out in a box-and-one on Colten and that was when Jason found Skyler three straight times for easy baskets and then the box-and-one was gone.”

Miell also turned in a phenomenal game chipping in with 16 points connecting on 7-of-14 shots from the field, as well as 2-of-5 from 3-point range to go with four rebounds and four assists in a stellar all-around effort.

‘Tony’s minutes were limited, but they were certainly productive,” said Barnes as Lueken still managed six points and four assists all while playing his usual outstanding defense against talented Monticello players. “We rotated our four bigs for most of the game until we went small in the fourth quarter. I thought all four bigs produced in a positive way as well.”

Barnes’s bigs included a rotation of Richie Dirks, Kurt Vavricek, Josh English and Nic Jansen and the foursome made scoring around the basket a challenge for the Panthers all night long and were also key to the Raiders picking up the season-opening 14-point triumph.

“Certainly the game wasn’t perfect,” said Barnes. “But I thought we did some nice things.”

Anamosa (1-0) jumped out on top of Monticello right from the get-go and never let up, though the Raiders could never completely blow the Panthers away either as the game stayed relatively close from start-to-finish.

Whenever Monticello would make a run and close to within 8-10 points, back the Raiders would come with Kelly, Miell and Vavricek all hitting clutch shots in the second half.

The Raiders led 21-17 after one quarter and 36-27 at the half.
Through three frames the hosts led 46-35 with the Panthers coming no closer than eight points through the fourth and final quarter.

After Monticello’s Matt Lee drilled a trey to cut the Raider lead to 46-38 just seconds into the final frame, but Kelly answered with one of his own giving Anamosa another double-digit advantage.

Ethan Zumbach connected on another shot from beyond the arc for the Panthers, but after a Vavricek lay-up with 5:41 to play, the hosts would hold their double-digit lead for the remainder of the game.

Kelly was simply sensational guiding the Raiders through scoring 17 of his 30 points in the first half shouldering much of the scoring load. Miell also added 10 first half points.

SPRINGVILLE— Opening the 2007-2008 season exactly the way he hoped they would, Anamosa wrestling coach Ron Timp saw plenty to be proud of Thursday, November 29, out of his young squad in a quad meet with Cascade, Central City and host Springville.

“For a first meet, I thought we did some very good things and showed we have a lot of ability and some pretty good wrestlers here,” said Timp after his team posted a 2-1 dual record on the evening coming through with triumphs over the host Orioles as well as Central City. “Every once in a while we showed our inexperience, like in a few of the matches against Cascade, but for the most part, I was pretty happy with what I saw, especially for a season-opener. This is a good start and a good point to begin our season from.”

Anamosa opened their dual and the season against Springville and against an Oriole squad boasting a mere four wrestlers, rolled to a huge 76-0 rout of the hosts.

“Springville has had some numbers problems for a little while now and they’re still trying to rebuild their program over there,” said Timp as his team received a whopping nine forfeit triumphs. “The kids who are still learning how to wrestle and the guys who actually went to the mat for us against Springville fared pretty well.”

Dan Bieber, Ryan Dolan, Evan Taylor and Steve Coleman all received forfeit wins to get the match started as the Raiders led 24-0 before Jesse Hansen scored a 9-1 decision victory over Mitch Meythaler at 140 pounds.

Mitch Hewitt added a 3:26 pin triumph at 145 pounds over Zach Strong while Derek Young followed with a 1:49 pin rout over Shaun Loehr at 152 pounds handing Anamosa a commanding 40-0 advantage.

Tony Snobl, taking to the varsity mat for the first time, tallied a 3:43 pin win over Dakota Richardson at 160 pounds for the final match of the dual.

Justin Walker, Jacob McWilliams, Sawyer Frazier, Travis Keltner and Tyler Forbes all received forfeit wins as well for the visitors.

“Quite a few guys got their first-ever varsity wins in this match,” said Timp. “It’s always nice to get that out of the way and have that first win and move forward.”

The Raiders’ second dual of the evening saw yet another impressive performance after a big 55-15 triumph over a solid Central City team.

ANAMOSA— Playing their first WaMaC Conference contest since being members of the league back in 1987, the Anamosa girls basketball team was given the challenge of facing the club many feel has the talent to win the league come February.

“Here we are the new kids on the block and who do we get for our first conference game?,” said Raider girls basketball coach Jack Leighty. “We open with a 10th-ranked Marion team picked to win the league, but I thought we were up for the challenge.”

Anamosa (1-2, 0-1) was more than up for facing the Indians, they not only battled the talented Marion club to the wire before succumbing to a 55-45 setback, but they also learned a lot about what a quality basketball team they can be this winter.

“We were down double-digits most of the way, but never quit and just kept fighting and hanging in there and hanging in there and in the fourth quarter, made a big run,” said Leighty. “When Paige Goetz, Kayla Sanborn and Jackie Engelbart are all scoring for us, we can be tough and for that stretch there in the fourth, we were giving Marion all they could ask for and more.”

Trailing 41-30 entering the fourth frame, Goetz drilled a 3-pointer to get the run started then Sanborn followed with another to trim the Indian lead to 41-36.

Engelbart connected for a field goal just a little over a minute into the frame and just like that, the Raiders were down by a mere four points forcing Marion coach Sherryl Paige to call timeout.

After Indian Brittany Fish hit a shot, Goetz stepped to the free throw line on two separate occasions hitting 3-of-4 closing the hosts to within 43-40 with 5:15 remaining.

“We cut it to two points so fast we just couldn’t seem to slow down and then made some mistakes down the stretch,” said Leighty. “We just tried doing too much too fast and good teams like Marion take advantage of mistakes.”

After the Raiders had closed to within one basket, the Indians went on a 12-4 spurt to end the contest pulling away for the 10-point triumph.

“We showed we have the firepower and the horses to compete in this league,” said Leighty. “We’ll learn from this loss. We made a great run and got back into a game we had been struggling through for much of the first three quarters, we just need to not try and get it all back all at once and force too many things.”

Goetz was sensational leading the Raiders scoring 21 points while adding six rebounds and three assists.
Sanborn chipped in with 13 points and six boards.

Anamosa trailed 15-8 after one quarter and 29-19 at the halftime horn.

Marion took a lead as large as 13 points in the third quarter before the Raiders went on their 16-5 run to close to within two points early in the fourth quarter.

“We made some nice defensive adjustments too in the second half that helped,” said Leighty as his team limited Marion’s Brittany Fish, who had drilled four first half 3-pointers, to none over the final 16 minutes. “That played a big part in the game too.”

Anamosa opened their week Tuesday, November 27, at No. 6 ranked Monticello, and were handed a 62-49 defeat.

“We took a 4-0 lead with a pair of Paige field goals,” said Leighty. “But that was just about all we did for a while and fell behind and struggled getting back into it.”

The Panthers, after trailing 4-0, ran off 13 straight points to lead 13-4 at the first quarter horn.

Monticello led by as many as 11 points in the second stanza before Anamosa made a late run using a 10-5 spurt to close to within 25-19 at the half.

“Momentum seemed to be swinging our way a bit,” said Leighty. “We kept it in our corner in the third quarter too.”

The Raiders closed to within two points in the third quarter going on a 9-5 run to open the frame to trail just 30-28.

“Monticello went on another run to end the third and made their free throws in the fourth to open it up,” said Leighty as the hosts led 39-30 after three frames. “We competed though. I have to give the girls that. They left it all out on the floor and made sure they gave everything they had. I can’t ask for more than that.”

Megan McLaughlin connected on 11-of-12 free throws for the Panthers, including game clinchers in the fourth quarter to seal Anamosa’s fate in the 13-point loss.

Goetz played a phenomenal game for the visitors scoring 22 points while also grabbing six rebounds. Sanborn added 13 more points while Engelbart chipped in with eight points.

“We still had too many turnovers, but overall I thought we played well,” said Leighty. “Right now we’re making young mistakes. In a few weeks, those will be gone and games like this one can go our way at the end instead of to the other team.”