Made the trek up to Coon Rapids to take in the yearly alumni game between the current Anoka-Ramsey team and the alumni players from years past. When you think about some of the great teams this program has been able to produce over the years you wonder sometimes "what if" certain teams from certain years could somehow square off against one another in a sort of "dream team" match-up. It's always fun to speculate how such a match-up(s) might go and, in reality, this is probably as close as you could get.
Interestingly enough, it was the Alumni team that had the edge for a good portion of the first half. Despite the fact that Anoka-Ramsey drew first blood at the 17:58 mark, the Alumni got the lead at the 17:14 mark when former All-American and St. Kate's standout Sonja Ellingson drained a "3" from the top of the key. Both teams then struggled offensively over the next couple of minutes. Amanda Reh then upped the Alumni's lead to 4-2 with a shot from the charity strip at the 14:29 mark but then Anoka-Ramsey's Allison Ballstadt buried a "3" from the left wing at the 14:11 mark for a 5-4 Anoka-Ramsey lead. The Alumni's Marie Hanson, one of the starters from last year's Anoka-Ramsey National Championship team, put in a short jumper at the 12:06 mark as the Alumni regained the lead at 6-5. Then, at the 8:23 mark, Hanson swished one of her patented three-pointers from the right corner for an 11-8 Alumni lead. With the game still close, Hanson again showed why she should be playing basketball somewhere as she buried another "3" from the right corner at the 5:15 mark and a 16-13 lead. But Anoka-Ramsey came right back with a "3" of their own at the 4:25 mark to tie things up at 16-all. The Alumni's Carrie Roline had a chance to give the Alumni the lead again at the 4:07 mark but missed two freebies at the charity stripe. Then, at the 3:21 mark, Anoka-Ramsey would take the lead for good on a short jumper and allowed only one other Alumni field goal down the rest of the first half stretch as Anoka-Ramsey held a 25-19 lead.
Anoka-Ramsey stretched the lead to 27-19 early on in the second half on a transition basket but the Alumni made something of a charge behind Roline two baskets at the 19:02 and 18:23 mark to whittle Anoka-Ramsey's lead down to 27-23. But just when you thought that maybe the Alumni team had a run in them, Anoka-Ramsey proceeded to go on a 14-5 run that enabled the young ones to hold a 43-28 cushion by the 10:28 mark. While they never quit, the Alumni was never able to cut the Anoka-Ramsey lead down to single digits though both Ellingson and Reh had some good moments in the second half. Anoka-Ramsey would come out in front in this fun battle by a very respectable score of 60-44.
After watching one practice and one "game", you have to think that this current version of Anoka-Ramsey has the goods to be a conference title contender certainly. Even Head Coach David DeWitt admitted that this is the best team he's ever had - at least from a purely athletic standpoint. And he's got some new players on the team that can just wow you with their athleticism. Still, on some fronts, I think it's something of a work in progress for this group; i.e., getting everybody on the same page chemistry-wise and getting the new freshmen to buy into DeWitt's tough defensive philosophy. From a pure shooting standpoint, they don't have someone like Stephanie Pilgrim (now with Hamline) or Hanson that can really be a consistent threat from behind the arc. They'll have their share of easy victories against lesser opponents but I will be curious to see how they fare against a team with some true height down low.
No comments:
Post a Comment