What a wild way to welcome the New Year.

Two buzzer-beating basketball finishes and an Eagles wrestling team soaring to unexpected heights at Yokosuka Naval Base, and the FIFTH overtime basketball game of the year.

First, a hearty welcome back to the Nile C. Kinnick Invitational "Beast of the Far East" Wrestling Tournament at Yokosuka Naval Base.

Kadena's championship in the dual-meet tournament may have been expected. What wasn't was the flight of Robert D. Edgren's Eagles to third place -- Edgren's highest finish in any Pacificwide wrestling tournament in school history.

Warning -- Darrel Morris, Ken and Kevin Radford and Andrew Blankenship are forces to be reckoned with at Far East next month.

E.J. King Cobras seniors enjoyed their turns in the buzzer-beating spotlight. Keith Williams' bank shot with one second left boosted the Cobras past Nile C. Kinnick 59-57, then just 16 hours later, Kristia Suriben launched a three-pointer with two defenders on her and the Cobras girls escaped the Red Devils 41-39.

As Suriben played hero at Yokosuka, the Cobras boys lost a heartbreaker 79-75 in overtime at Camp Zama, then completed a four-game Tokyo road trip with wins over Canadian Academy and St. Mary's International.

Snow wasn't kind to wrestling in Korea; a tri-meet at Seoul American got scotched by the white stuff, as did four weekend basketball games at Daegu American.

But on the basketball court, Seoul American's girls showed why they're considered a favorite for their third Class AA title in four years. They beat the Yongsan POST team on Saturday. Makes the Falcons 1-1 against the Rebels this season.

Fun way to ring in the New Year. :)