Despite posting a combined overall record of 7-19, there’s reason for optimism for the Adel-Desoto-Minburn Tigers basketball teams as the second half of the Raccoon River Conference season begins tonight. The Ballard Bombers fly into Adel this evening for the second and final league meeting this winter. ADM suffered a pair of losses to the Bombers in Huxley back on December 1.

The ADM girls basketball team (4-10 overall; 3-4 RRC) is happy to return home after a winless three-game road swing against some of the better squads in Class 4A. Two of the Tigers losses came against teams ranked in the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union’s Class 4A poll, including No. 6 Boone (74-48) last Friday and No. 13 Dallas Center-Grimes (51-26) Tuesday. ADM will look to avenge a 47-28 loss to Ballard (7-7 overall; 6-1 RRC) last month. ADM girls basketball coach Rick Dillinger said the score doesn’t reflect how close he feels the two teams truely are. “First game against Ballard, we didn’t have Delaney (Bertman), and I do think she can make a difference in the game,” Dillinger said, “We weren’t down 19 (points) until late in the game, and they ran away late.

The ADM boys basketball team (3-9 overall; 0-7 RRC) turned some heads earlier this week by ending an eight-game losing streak on the road against nonconference rival Dallas Center-Grimes (7-6 overall), 53-46. The Tigers will look for their first Raccoon River Conference win of the season when the Bombers (5-8 overall; 3-4 RRC) come to town. Ballard outlasted ADM, 57-52, in Huxley last month. ADM head boys basketball coach Aaron Mager says he’s entering the second half of the conference season knowing more about his personnel. “We got a new point guard whose out from a different school, we got one returning veteran player, we got another guy who played a little bit of varsity, and everyone else is new to Fridays and Tuesdays,” Mager said, “Sometimes the learning process isn’t as fast as you want it to be, especially as a coach, but we are working hard enough that we are making improvements.”

Raccoon River Conference basketball resumes tonight as ADM and Ballard square off in Adel. Catch live play by play coverage of the varsity doubleheader on True Country, K 107.9 and worldwide at racoonvalleyradio.com and the KKRF mobile app. The Lincoln Savings Bank Pregame Show starts our live coverage at 5:40 p.m. and the varsity girls tip at 6 p.m.