Cyclone BB Starts 2025 with Sweep in Denison

HC's Brinley Van Baale (1-2-25)

HC's Jozef Reisz (1-2-25)

Cyclone BB Starts 2025 with Sweep in Denison -

(1-2-25) – Harlan Community got to ring in the new year right with a doubleheader sweep of Denison-Schleswig.

Brinley VanBaale had 11 points as the Cyclones rolled to a 62-23 win over the Monarchs. VanBaale likes getting one in the win column after the holiday break.

“It's always good to start with a victory, just a little confidence boost. We have the scrimmages, but it never feels like a real game, so it's always nice to get one out of the way and then prepare for the rest of the season to come.”

The Cyclones forced turnover after turnover in the opening quarter to score the first 15 pts of the game. It was all part of Coach Zach Klaassen’s game plan.

“We talked about just getting a lot of tip balls and that's going to lead turnovers, that’s going to lead to easy buckets.”

The Monarch’s attempted to change their approach to break through the Cyclone pressure, but Klaassen’s players had the answers for everything thrown at them… literally.

“All of a sudden they started trying to throw it over the top of us after Grace tipped few balls and we got a couple traps at half court there and then Brinley just got steals. So, it kind of worked out. She was being aggressive back there, we said, ‘Any long pass has got to be your pass.’ And she did a good job of getting to those.”

That belief shown by Klaassen is helping Van Baale with her believe in herself.

“I really could not do without my teammates or my coaches. Without their confidence in me I couldn't have any confidence in myself. So that really helps. Just the support in just growing more like with maturity and with the game. It helped a lot getting some time freshman year because I get more comfortable with the girls so that all kind of helped and contributed to it too.”

Grace Albertsen led Harlan Community with 16 pts.

On the boys’ side, Jozef Reisz would get a double-double with 14 points and 13 boards as Harlan Community hung on to win 57-51 over Denison-Schleswig.

Reisz thinks this could be the first step of something special for this group.

“We play really great as a team and we bond a lot together and we do a lot of things together and I think we're only gonna grow from here. You know, you start off slow always in the start of the season, but we have tremendous growth and I'm excited for this team.”

Kobe Klaassen also had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Reisz likes the confidence the sophomore has shown over the past several contests.

“Starting as a sophomore, I mean, you’re gonna have gitters or whatever. But these past couple games, he’s playing with a lot of confidence and really getting after and playing like how he usually does.”

Harlan Community led by as much as 18 in the 2nd half before Denison-Schleswig mounted a comeback, added by the Cyclones struggles at the charity stripe. They were 19 for 41 from the free throw line, a stat they need to improve on moving forward.

Both Cyclone teams will be playing tonight on the road against Clarinda. The times of those game have been moved up with the girls’ varsity starting at 5pm and the boys’ varsity starting at 6:30pm.

View past scores by visiting the Iowa High School Athletic Association's website, Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union website,
or Iowa Quik Stats