Atlantic will look again to slay a fellow Hawkeye 10 team for a third time this season
By Drew Herron - NT Sports Editor / Feb. 24, 2013
ATLANTIC – There are a number of obstacles waiting for the
No. 2-ranked Trojans when they take the floor to face Harlan Monday night in
Council Bluffs (AL).
First, as any basketball team will acknowledge, it is
difficult to beat a quality opponent three times.
Secondly, Harlan is playing awfully good basketball right
now.
Third, there is the elephant in room so to speak…last year’s
playoff defeat at the hands of Harlan on the same court to be played on Monday.
That 73-52 loss still ought to resonate with the Trojans and their
senior-dominated squad, and how the lesson is applied will be played out soon
enough.
However you frame this Class 3A Substate 8 Final, the stakes
are always the highest during playoff basketball.
“It’s going to be another tough one,” Atlantic coach Steve
Blazek said of Harlan. “They are a little bit different (than Creston)…they
have a lot of guys capable of shooting the 3, and they are very streaky.”
Harlan (17-6) charges into the Substate round playing perhaps its best ball of the season. Following a five-point loss to Creston on Feb. 12, the Cyclones burned Glenwood and Raccoon River Conference champs Carroll twice, the second of which came 51-43 in Friday night’s District 16 final at Denison.
A group of mostly juniors have led the Cyclones this season, with Trey Lansman (16.7 PPG), Nathan Cave (11.2), Gabe Ferry (8.9) and Adam Juhl (8.2) picking up the bulk of the scoring.
Lansman leads the team in boards as well with 198 on the year, and an 8.9 RBG average, though his athleticism allows him to play out and slash a bit.
Atlantic will look to put together another defensive program for this game, tailored to containing Lansman much like the Trojans’ dealt with Luke Neitzel Friday.
“Lansman is a tough matchup for us,” coach Blazek says. “We need to limit what he’s able to do, and then chase the (perimeter players) off the 3-point line. Make them put it on the floor to beat us.”
The Trojans have a disappointing recent history when facing Harlan in the postseason, and a lot of that has to do with the tact of Harlan coach Mitch Osborn, and his imaginative arsenal of defensive packages. Whatever defense and tempo Harlan attacks Atlantic with Monday is certain to be fresh schematically and how Atlantic handles it will do a lot to determine how the game plays out.
The Trojans dealt with Friday’s pressure well as they settled in, seizing the game in the third quarter. Eventually, Atlantic had built a 20-point lead against a quality opponent that had lost to just one other school over the course of the entire season.
After Friday’s game, Blazek praised the team’s effort and
the court leadership, in particular senior point guard Chad Christensen, who
played at less than 100 percent, though you would not have been able to tell by
his play against Creston.
The senior-laden Trojans take a 22-1 record and a 19-game
winning streak into the Substate, just one win away from securing a spot at the State Tournament in Des Moines the next week.
How they finish is up to each side.
“They put in a lot of time,” coach Blazek says of his group.
“Hopefully, we will be able to put the ball in the basket a little, and guard
Lansman little, get a hand in their 3-point shooters’ faces…then we are going
to have a good outcome. But, we are probably going to have play a little better
team defense than we did (Friday) if we want to beat Harlan.”
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