Anamosa brushes past Iowa City Regina for 1st boys' state basketball appearance

CEDAR RAPIDS — The chant was familiar. If you've heard it once, you've heard it a hundred times.

'I!' the Anamosa student section began screaming with a minute or so remaining in Saturday night's Class 2A substate final. 'I believe! I believe we!'

Then there was a twist.

'I believe we're going to state! I believe we're going to state!'

Yeah, for the first time, too. How about that?

Anamosa successfully completed a complicated path to the boys' state tournament with a 76-65 win over Iowa City Regina at Washington High School. The Blue Raiders (20-5) didn't have a first-round district bye, winning four games instead of three to make it to Des Moines.

That included beating top-five ranked Northeast Goose Lake and a really good Camanche team along the way. Regina was last year's state runner-up, too.

Anamosa is a sixth seed, drawing Des Moines Christian (21-3) in a March 8 quarterfinal beginning at 10:30 a.m.

Boys' state basketball tournament brackets

'Oh, my God, this is so overwhelming,' said Anamosa's Tyler Zumbach, who was hugging every man, woman and child in sight on the court postgame. 'I am so happy right now. This is exactly how I dreamed it would be.'

'Indescribable, really,' added Anamosa's Kyle Schepanski. 'Everything we've been through since third grade, every tourament we've played together. We've been thinking of this moment for so long. It's indescribable to actually achieve going to Wells Fargo. It's giving me goosebumps right now, to be honest.'

When Anamosa gets it rolling, it can give any fan goosebumps. It presses you defensively, pushes tempo and and relies heavily on the three-headed offensive monster of Zumbach, Schepanski and Kolin Schulte.

They were great here, combining for 64 points. With repeated strong takes to the bucket, Schulte helped give Anamosa a 14-point lead at the break, scoring 18 of his game-high 29 in the first half.

'Regina tried to control tempo on us a little bit, and I worried about that because their guards are so strong,' said Anamosa Coach Kevin Barnes. 'That was a concern. Could we get up under them and force them to do what we wanted them to do? But when Kolin got to the rim consistently pretty early, I felt good about it. We forced a couple of things with our pressure, then I started feeling a little more relaxed. Then it was just a matter of playing our game and making shots.'

Regina (15-10), last season's 2A state runner-up, could never make that one big push to get back into the game. The Regals would get it within 10 points but nothing under that.

Forward Nathan Stenger did everything he could, finishing with 27 points. Andrew Adamec added 14.

'They're a great team, obviously, and they play really well together,' Stenger said. 'They've got great players. I feel like we played hard. Everybody really bought in toward the last third of the season, and we finally got everyone healthy. Everybody played extremely hard tonight. You can't fault our effort. That was there tonight.'

But it wasn't quite good enough for the victory. This is the 18th season for Barnes at Anamosa, and it's one he'll never forget, regardless of how his team does at the state tournament.

'I have loved every group I've coached, but this group is just special,' he said. 'To be able to go down to Des Moines with them is really neat.'

'We're confident,' Schulte said. 'We think we can play with any team out there, feel like the east side of the state has a lot of good competition.'

AT C.R. WASHINGTON

IOWA CITY REGINA (65): Nathan Stenger 11-20 1-3 27, Thomas Rapp 0-3 0-0 0, Jocoa Kerschen 3-9 0-0 8, Ethan Suchomel 0-1 0-0 0, Andrew Adamec 5-11 4-10 7-8 20, Nick Phillips 3-4 0-2 8, Jacob Phillips 2-5 0-0 4, Ryne Schooley 0-1 0-0 0, Trae Rogers 1-1 0-0 2, Samuel Stein 1-1 0-0 2, Zachary Seaman 0-0 0-0 0, Carter Daniel 0-0 0-0 0, Jack Jensen 0-0 0-0 0, Jacob Clark 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-56 4-11 65.

ANAMOSA (76): Austin Hunt 0-1 1-4 1, Tyler Zumbach 6-10 7-8 20, Kolin Schulte 9-15 7-10 29, Kyle Sayre 3-5 0-1 6, Kyle Schepanski 5-7 2-2 15, Cole Sander 0-1 2-2 2, Ryan Krapfl 0-0 0-0 0, Gabe Finn 0-1 0-0 0, Cole Jamison 0-1 3-3 3, Dillon Meade 0-0 0-0 0, Dylan Jones 0-0 0-0 0, Wyatt Heims 0-1 0-0 0, Gabe Wolfe 0-0 0-0 0, Elijah Pavin 0-0 0-0 0, Brian Sayre 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-42 22-30 76.

Halftime — Anamosa 36, Regina 22. 3-point goals — Regina 8-19 (Stenger 4-7, Kerschen 2-7, N. Phillips 2-3, J. Phillips 0-1, Schooley 0-1), Anamosa 8-17 (Hunt 0-1, Zumbach 1-2, Schulte 4-6, Schepanski 3-5, Sander 0-1, Finn 0-1, Heims 0-1). Rebounds — Regina 32 (Stenger, Rapp 6), Anamosa 28 (Schulte, K. Sayre 6). Total fouls — Regina 23, Anamosa 15. Fouled out — J. Phillips. Turnovers — Regina 10, Anamosa 10.

l Comments: (319) 398-8259; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com