The Atlantic Trojans boys’ basketball team took a hard-fought loss on the road at Glenwood 67-56. The Rams got off to a fast start with a full court press and forcing seven first quarter Trojan turnovers had a 16-4 lead before Gavin McLaren hit a three to make the score 16-7. Trojans head coach Dalton Franken talked about the first couple minutes of the game being the deciding factor on the night.

The Trojans would battle all night long but just could never get over the hump. The Trojans offense rode the hot hand of senior leader Colton Rasmussen who posted a game high 31 points and at times willed the Trojans to cut the lead as low as five after an incredible four-point play by Rasmussen, but the Rams would always respond with an immediate run of their own to push the lead back to double figures. Head Coach Dalton Franken is very happy with his team’s resiliency to keep fighting until the very end, but his message is to start the game with the same energy and enthusiasm as they ended the game.

With the 11-point loss the Trojans fall to 0-2 on the young season and 0-1 in the Hawken Ten Conference. The Trojans will be back in action on Tuesday night when they will host Clarinda for a 7:30pm tipoff in Atlantic.

In the girls game it had a very similar start to the boy’s game and a similar ending with Atlantic losing 56-42. Atlantic scored the first four points of the game after a Makenna Schroeder and Katrina Williams layups. But the lady Rams quickly turned that around as they turned up the pressure to a full court press where they would benefit with forcing the Lady Trojans to seven first quarter turnovers. But the second quarter would be even worse for the Trojans as they had nine turnovers for 16 total first half turnovers and the Rams led 29-12. Head Coach of the Trojans Dan Vargason talked about the teams turnover problem early in the season as they averaged 34 a game through the first three full games.

The Lady Trojans would play an unbelievable fourth quarter where they outscored the Lady Rams 18-8 and shot 8-13 from the floor in the period. The Lady Trojans are still a very young team that plays several sophomores and freshman, so they are still learning how to play with each other and build chemistry on the floor and know their roles better as players. Coach Vargason said he thinks that is part of the reason for the slow starts, but the fourth quarter was very positive to see.

The Lady Trojans fall to 1-3 on the season and will be back in action to play on Tuesday night to take on Clarinda for a 6:00pm tipoff.