(Atlantic) The Atlantic boys’ basketball team is heading into postseason play tonight at ADM, and they seem to be trending in the right direction. Last week, they managed to knock off Harlan in regular season play, and despite suffering a narrow loss against Dension-Schleswig in the regular season finale the following night, the Trojans put up a good fight in the three-point loss.
Atlantic Head Coach Dalton Franken. The Trojans drew the 8th seed in Substate and had the challenging task of facing the number one seed, ADM. The Tigers, members of the Raccoon River Conference, enter postseason play with a conference championship and 18-3 overall. Franken says the Tigers put a lot of talented guards on the floor.
Defensively, the Trojans must hone in on guard Hudson Lorensen and Adam Byte, averaging 16 points per game, and Point Guard Rhylan Stine-Smith.
The Tigers have an inside presence with 6’5 post-Grant Rychnovsky, who averages ten points and seven rebounds per game—Coach Franken’s Keys–defense communication in the half-court, action on their screening process, and rebounding.
The game features the Class 3A leading scorer, Colton Rasmussen of Atlantic. The senior is coming off a 39-point effort against Denison one week ago. Rasmussen, averaging 27 per game, has 593 total points on the season, including a school-record 50 points on January 22. Rasmussen has buried 62 three-point shots this season, and Nolan Waters, averaging shy of 10 points per outing, has 49.
We will have the broadcast on 95.7 F.M. and audio-streamed on westerniowatoday.com. The pre-game show starts at 6:30 p.m., and the tip-off is at 7:00 p.m. Tom Robinson and Roger Warne will be on the call.
The Atlantic/ADM winner will play either Denison-Schleswig or Carroll. On the Bottom side of the bracket, the Bondurant-Farrar/ Perry winner will play either Harlan or Creston. Both Substate Semi-finals will be played on Thursday, February 22.
