ANAMOSA — When holding a lead in the fourth quarter, the Anamosa boys basketball team has been able to close games out tight contests well so far this season.

That wasn’t the case Friday, January 4, however.

The Raiders held a five-point fourth quarter advantage and appeared on the verge on shuttling visiting Independence to their awaiting bus for a long trip home, but a huge spurt by the Mustangs and a string of costly turnovers and empty offensive possessions keyed a disappointing 65-57 WaMaC Conference defeat.

“This one hurt,” said Anamosa boys basketball coach Kevin Barnes after the eight-point setback. “To lead by five points with five minutes to go and not put it away is very disappointing.”

Anamosa (4-3, 3-2) watched as Independence came out red-hot shooting the basketball from the floor drilling shots from the perimeter as well as the post and scored a whopping 11 points in a mere three-minute span.

Colten Kelly did the best he could to keep his Raider team in the game early, answering almost every Mustang basket with one of his own as the visitors led just 11-9 with four minutes still to play in the opening frame.

Suddenly however, what appeared to be a score-fest, turned into a defensive battle the rest of the first half as Independence led 14-11 at the first quarter horn.

“I thought our play was inconsistent all night long,” said Barnes as Kelly kept the Raiders close scoring 15 first half points against a Mustang defense designed to stop him.
“Colten’s shooting kept us in the game, but we were not as crisp as we needed to be offensively.”

CENTRAL CITY — For two quarters, the Midland girls basketball team was getting all they could handle from a scrappy Central City team Saturday, January 5.

But when play got tense in the second half, it was the Eagles who rose to the challenge and pulled away from the Wildcats for a 59-45 road triumph.

“This was a tough, hard-fought basketball game,” said Midland girls basketball coach Josh Bentley as his club and Central City bruised each other for 32 brutal minutes that saw both sides not back down and play extremely physical basketball. “It was a very physical game that both teams had to adjust to and once they did, things settled down and both teams knew what was going to be called and what wasn’t.”

Midland (6-4, 1-2) took a 13-11 first quarter lead over the Wildcats and every time they seemed to be taking control in the second stanza, the hosts would rally and make a game of it coming through with some clutch jumpers, attacking the rim or getting to the free throw line.”

“Central City played hard and did a nice job on the glass, partly because we didn’t do what we needed to do. The other part being they just out-worked us.”

Another 13-11 edge for the Eagles had the visitors leading just 26-22 at the halftime horn.

“We have to understand we must work hard every night, not just sometimes or parts of the games. We also missed way too many free throws, which allowed Central City to stay close.”

The third quarter however, saw Midland take control as Caitlin Bisinger attacked the Wildcat press and when she wasn’t finding shots herself driving through the defense for a lay-up, she was creating scoring opportunities for her teammates.

The Eagles went on a game-changing 17-8 spurt out of the halftime break and took command entering the fourth frame with a 43-29 advantage.

GOOSE LAKE — Scoring points was at a premium for the Midland boys basketball team taking to the road at Goose Lake Friday, January 4, as the Eagles tallied just 23 points in suffering a rough 67-23 setback against host Northeast.

Midland (1-8, 0-3) trailed 16-6 after one quarter and the lead gradually grew and grew for the hosts who seemed to do no wrong in taking the 44-point final, the first game after the Christmas break for both clubs.

“Northeast played a really good game,” said Eagle boys basketball coach Matt Hartman. “They dominated the boards with their size and were relentless to the basketball.
We need to be more relentless in our approach to the game. We need to have a better team effort too on the board and defensively. We also need to play better as a group, because right now, we don’t seem to be playing together.”

The Rebels went on a huge 20-9 spurt in the second quarter to take a 36-15 lead into the locker room at the halftime break. The impressive rally continued over the third quarter as well going on a 19-4 run to lead 55-19 entering the final frame.

The Eagle struggles offensively continued in the fourth quarter as well as the hosts again held Midland to a mere four points over the final eight-minute stretch.

Six different Eagles scored in the contest with Zach Bonney leading the bunch pouring in seven points. Kolby Harms chipped in with four points while Cody Dirks, Jason Vacek, Jordan Oberbreckling and Ryan Dunne all added two points each for the Eagle boys.

The road show continued for Midland Saturday, January 5, in Central City where the Eagles came out on the short end of a 67-43 count against a much improved Wildcat club.
“ “Central City out-played us in every aspect of the game,”
said Hartman. “We need to understand the importance of fundamentals and communicate with each other on the floor. I was disappointed in our play over the weekend because it didn’t reflect how hard we worked over the Christmas break.”

The Eagles hung tough with the Wildcats over the game’s first eight minutes of play as Jarred Stepp, Bonney, Dunne and Harms all sank key baskets helping the visitors to an impressive 14-point first frame.