When it comes to reliable, on-time delivery, the Austin boys’ basketball and hockey teams – a combined 21-9-1 – have been the closest things to a sure thing all winter next to the wrestling team.

Thursday, February 03, 2000

When it comes to reliable, on-time delivery, the Austin boys’ basketball and hockey teams – a combined 21-9-1 – have been the closest things to a sure thing all winter next to the wrestling team.

When those two teams aren’t blowing out lesser opposition, they’re gutting it out in every grudge match they encounter.

But now things are really going to get interesting.

The hockey team hosts non-conference foe Rochester Lourdes tonight at Riverside Arena in what amounts to the calm before a four-game Big Nine storm.

Lourdes and Austin haven’t met for a few years as the Eagles suffered through tough times. Now that Lourdes is back in the Class A’s Top 10, the game is back on.

Austin coach Denny Laumeyer, with conference games against Century, Albert Lea, John Marshall and Mayo on the horizon, isn’t going to risk anything tonight.

"Lourdes is a strong team," Laumeyer said, "but it will give us a chance to rest some people and do some different things."

For the Austin boys’ basketball team there is no rest for the weary.

Austin hosts Faribault on Friday. The Falcons handed the Packers their first loss of the season.

In that game, Austin couldn’t contain Jay Anderson, who Austin coach Kris Fadness calls "the best player in the conference."

You’d be hard pressed to find someone who disagrees with the coach on that one. Anderson, an inside-outside player with a feather touch on his jumper, is a Division I recruit of Oregon.

But he might not be the key player in the game.

That honor might go to Neil Kruchten, a 6-foot, 5-inch presence, who is out for the season.

Kruchten was available in the the two teams’ first meeting and scored just four points. But without his body, Anderson and the rest of the Falcons might find things a bit tougher.

"They’re still strong," Fadness said. "They’ve got a starting five as good as anybody’s."

The Packers found out in their 10-point win over Winona on Tuesday that their second swing through the Big Nine wasn’t going to be easy.

"Every team in the Big Nine is a good team," Austin role player Jeff Becker said. "We expect close games."