It was the first double header of the season Friday night as both the ADM girls and boys basketball teams were in action. It was both team’s initiation into Raccoon River Conference play as they squared off against the Ballard Bombers at home.
The Lady Tigers were seeking their third win over the Lady Bombers within the past five seasons while also looking to add another win to their 2016-17 record which sat at 1-2. It was a hard fought game for the Lady Tigers who made great strides but unfortunately could not manage to come out with the win, falling to Ballard 39-36. It was a back and forth close game that did not have a single quarter lead eclipse 5 points. The game started off on a slow scoring note with ADM down 7-8 at the end of one quarter. After a few lead changes in the second quarter the Lady Bombers would end the half up on the Lady Tigers 19-14. The hometown Tigers would spur on a great third quarter outscoring the Lady Bombers 15-9 in the third to enter the fourth and final quarter up 29-28. Unfortunately for the Lady Tigers Ballard would end the fourth quarter on an 11-7 run to outlast the surging ADM squad defeating the Lady Tigers 39-36.
ADM held a Ballard team who finished last season with the fourth most 3 pt buckets made in class 4A to just one through the first half of play on Friday. Sydney Bertman would take the top spot scoring for the Lady Tigers putting up 10 total points on the night added onto her team leading 5 rebounds for the contest. Right behind Bertman was a second half surging Allie Cook scoring all 9 of her points int the second half.
With the loss, ADM now falls to 1-3 overall while starting off the conference season 0-1.
The Tiger boys squad continued the excitement as they entered a battle of last year’s co-conference champions and in a game that came down to the wire, the Tigers came away with a slim 60-57 win.
The Tigers led in every quarter in the game starting out with a 13-10 lead after one quarter. While the lead changed hands just twice in the first half, the halftime score saw ADM up by a slim 33-30 lead. The second half was quite the roller coaster as ADM ballooned their lead out to a 15 point lead over the bombers, but with 4 minutes left in the third quarter the Tigers would see that lead diminish down to one point midway through the fourth quarter. With just under two minutes left in the game the lead for ADM would fluctuate between 1 and 3 point various times before Jared Sapp Payton Conrad would drain critical free throws to secure the three point lead 60-57 to end the game.
Tajen Ross had a monster game erupting for 33 points on the contest which came on the heels of 7 three point buckets. ADM’s senior football quarterback nicely transitioned into the basketball world to earn the second most points on the night for ADM as Sam McCartney came away with 9 points. Payton Conrad and Matt Larson tied for the team lead in rebounds with 5 a piece in the game.
With the win, the Tigers now improve to 1-1 overall and 1-0 inside conference play earning their 2nd win against the Ballard in 4 seasons.
Next up for both Tiger squads will be their second double header of the season in Winterset on Friday, December 9th taking on the Huskies. Girls game will kick off at 6:00 pm followed by the boys game at 7:30 and you can catch it all on K107.9FM and streamed online at raccoonvalleyradio.com.