It was a see-saw affair on Tuesday night between Atlantic and Harlan in Boys Basketball and the Cyclones made just enough plays down the stretch to win 74-71.  Both teams traded the lead throughout the night but it was back to back three point plays from Logan Klaassen that got Harlan the late lead they would hang on to for the win. In back-to-back possessions Klaassen hit a three and got a hoop and one to flip the score from 64-65 to 70-65 in favor of the Cyclones. Harlan would then run as much clock as they could and ended up with three straight 1 and bonus opportunities due to offensive rebounds. Atlantic got the lead back down to two after an Austin Alexander three before Caleb Rasmussen made one free throw to push the lead back to three.  Atlantic got a couple of good looks from the outside by Chase Mullenix but his tries were off the mark. Rasmussen missed two freebies with 4 seconds left but Atlantic couldn’t get a shot off before the final horn.

Much of the scoring came from the three point line as the teams combined for 25 makes from distance.  Atlantic Head Coach Alan Jenkins said it wasn’t the game plan to shoot as much as they did from the outside but both teams were making them.

Coach Jenkins felt like the game was really lost on the defensive end of the floor.

Harlan Senior Guard Caleb Rasmussen had a huge impact on the game with his ability to drive into the lane and not only score 18 points himself but create open shots for teammates.

The Cyclones were led by Logan Klassen’s 24 points and improve to 3-1 in conference play and 4-4 overall. Atlantic falls to 3-1 in Hawkeye Ten play and 6-3 overall. They were led by Austin Alexander with 24 points off 8 made threes and Garrett Franken with 21.  The Trojans next travel to Denison on Friday night, a game we’ll have for you on KJAN.

The Atlantic Boys Basketball Team travels to Harlan tonight to face the Cyclones in a big Hawkeye Ten game right out of the holiday break.  The Trojans will be trying to bounce back into the win column after dropping their final two games before the holiday break putting their record at 6-2. The Cyclones will also be attempting to buck a losing streak as they lost 4 straight before the break to put their overall record at 3-4.

This is the first meeting of the season between the two rivals and it will be the match-up that counts toward the conference standings. The Trojans are 2-0 in league play thus far, while the Cyclones are 2-1.

Atlantic has been led by Senior Garrett Franken who comes in averaging 25 points and 8 rebounds per game.  Harlan has been led by Senior Guard Caleb Rasmussen averaging 16 points and 5 assists. Each squad has two other players averaging double figures in scoring. The Cyclones won both meetings last year.

We’ll have coverage of the game tonight on KJAN. Chris Parks has the call on AM1220, FM101.1, online at kjan.com and on the KJAN Mobile App. You can also check out live streaming video on our TV page at kjan.com. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30pm and we’ll be on the air about 7:20pm with pregame coverage.

The 7:20-a.m. Sportscast w/Jim Field.

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Iowa quarterback C.J. Beathard’s health was a key topic of discussion during the Hawkeye’s 30-3 loss to Florida in the Outback Bowl Monday. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said after the game that he talked to Beathard after he injured his hamstring in a first quarter run that ended one yard from the end zone. “He’s always going to say he’s going to play. If he had a broken leg, that’s going to be his answer,” according to Ferentz.

“We’ve had a lot of tough guys come through the University of Iowa and play football — at least in my 27 years at and he’s right up there at the top. We have to look and see what it looks like. If he’s in harms way we are going to get him out of there certainly. First and foremost it’s a medical decision to be made by the doctors and trainers. So, it starts there, but if he could go, he’s allowed to go, much like last year.”

Beathard says he knew he was hurt and lobbied to stay in the game. “I told them I wanted to stay in there as much as possible. If I could do it, I was going to stay in,” Beathard says. He says he was only about 30 percent when it came to running, but says he didn’t think he was in bad enough shape to take himself out of the game. “I wasn’t going to do that no — especially in my last game — maybe in a different game possibly. That’s not who I am. If I could stay in and play the game I was going to do that,” Beathard says.

Beathard ended up with his worst game statistically as a starter, hitting just 7 of 23 passes for 55 yards and three interceptions. He did however finish his career as the quarterback with the best winning percentage who started at least 20 games, going 20-7. While Beathard talked about not wanting to come out of his last game, defensive back

Desmond King talked about his decision to return for his senior season after being a consensus All-American in his junior year.”I think the four years I have been here was fantastic…I am 100 percent with the decision that I made to come back to the University of Iowa to get my degree and to lead this team the right way,” King says. “And I felt that I put that in effect and it came out positive.”

He says being a leader on this year’s team was important. “I felt like it was a very good thing that I came back,” King says. King appeared in his 53rd game and made his 51st start — both of which are records. He made a circus-like interception in the game — which was the 14th of his career and tied him with Damien Robinson for fourth all time in Hawkeye history.

(Learfield Sports)

East Sac County 68, Cherokee, Washington 51

Lenox 64, Diagonal 29

Sergeant Bluff-Luton 77, Woodbury Central, Moville 64

Siouxland Community Christian/Whiting 71, Akron-Westfield 33

Akron-Westfield 52, Siouxland Community Christian/Whiting 48

Cherokee, Washington 95, East Sac County 42

Diagonal 51, Lenox 32

Sergeant Bluff-Luton 70, Woodbury Central, Moville 62

The director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources says there are fewer hunters, but more gun owners in Iowa these days. 1975 seems to be the high-water mark for hunting in Iowa. The state issued more than 416-thousand hunting and fishing licenses that year. This past year, the state issued nearly 60 percent fewer licenses than it did four decades ago. D-N-R director Chuck Gipp says his agency’s operations are financed, in part, by those license fees. “With revenue being flat or going down like that, it’s going to be a challenge,” Gipp says.

According to a study by researchers at Columbia and Boston Universities, nearly 34 percent of adult Iowans own a gun. “People are physically using shooting as a sport or recreational activity, so they’re buying the weapons and there’s a great increase in the number of weapons that are out there,” Gipp says. “So our shooting sports and our ranges are critically important so they have a place to go and discharge that weapon.” The state owns and manages 10 shooting ranges. The rest are private or run by a county conservation board. In 2012, Gipp’s agency started awarding state grants for the development and improvement of shooting ranges around the state.

“The sale of weapons have increased. It’s incredibly important that if you’re going to use a weapon properly that you have the education and the opportunity to shoot it,” Gipp says. “Access to private lands for shooting, like when I was a kid you’d just grab a few bottles out of the county and city dump and you’d take them out to the old quarry and you’d shoot those. You can’t do that anymore and so shooting ranges are incredibly used.”

Earlier this year, more than 22-hundred Iowa kids participated in the annual “Scholastic Clay Target Program Trap Championship.” It was held near Cedar Falls, at the Iowa State Trapshooting Association Homegrounds. “The various shooting stands that they have, it’s about a mile long,” Gipp says. “And that’s not big enough, now, for some of the trap shoots that we have for the high school teams.”

The “Hunger Games” movies have spurred interest in another shooting sport — archery, but Gipp says finding shooting ranges for archers is difficult.

(Radio Iowa)

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – Austin Appleby threw for 222 yards and two touchdowns, helping No. 20 Florida end a two-game losing streak with a 30-3 rout of No. 21 Iowa in the Outback Bowl on Monday. Mark Thompson scored on an 85-yard pass play in the first half and Appleby, a graduate transfer who spent the past four seasons at Purdue, tossed a 6-yard TD pass to DeAndre Goolsby to break the game open late in the third quarter. Chauncey Gardner, Jr., returned the first of his two fourth-quarter interceptions 58 yards for a 24-3 lead.

Florida (9-4) rebounded from lopsided losses to archrival Florida State and No. 1 Alabama, scoring more points on Iowa (8-5) than the Hawkeyes allowed to Michigan, Illinois and Nebraska combined while ending the regular season on a three-game winning streak.

Iowa’s C.J. Beathard led an early field goal drive, and managed to get his team close to the end zone on two other occasions. Florida’s defense stiffened both times, stopping the Hawkeyes on downs at the Gator 3 in the second quarter and forcing them to settle for a 30-yard field goal that sailed wide right midway through the third quarter.

Appleby, who actually began his career at Purdue against Iowa, shrugged off throwing interceptions on Florida’s first two drives of the day to finish 14 of 25 passing. Akrum Wadley ran for 115 yards, giving Iowa a pair of 1,000-yard rushers in the same season for the first time. The junior finished with 1,081, and LeShun Daniels wound up with 1,058 after gaining 45 Monday.

THE TAKEAWAY…

The Gators could be looking at having to replace at least three stalwarts on defense – tackle Caleb Brantley and cornerbacks Jalen Tabor and Quincy Wilson – who are expected to leave school early to enter the NFL draft. Linebacker Alex Anzalone and defensive back Duke Dawson also are considering turning pro.

Iowa: Like Florida’s Tabor and Wilson, cornerback Desmond King is a likely high NFL draft pick. He won the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation’s top defensive back as a junior and was just as good this year, though opponents’ reluctance to throw his way – three interceptions this season vs. eight in 2015 – may have hurt his chances to win the award again as a senior. The Hawkeyes will also lose quarterback C.J. Beathard, who finished his career 21-7 as a starter.

UP NEXT

Florida: Opens next season Sept. 2 against Michigan in Arlington, Texas.

Iowa: Wyoming visits Iowa City for season opener on Sept. 2nd.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A University of Iowa benefactor has donated $5 million toward the renovation of Kinnick Stadium’s north end. The university announced Sunday, during Outback Bowl festivities in Tampa, Florida, that Ted and Deb Pacha had made a contribution to the $90 million project. In October the Board of Regents approved the project plans, which include a second deck for seating, new restrooms, expanded concourses and improved concessions. The project is expected to be finished before the 2019 season.

Ted Pacha said in a university news release that he and his wife “have a great passion for the mission of Iowa athletics and are extremely proud to take a leadership role in the Kinnick Edge Campaign.”