The Superior Express -

A good old Nebraska ice and snow storm delayed the starting of the Hershey, Nebraska Holiday Basketball Tournament last week. However, the long trip west did happen on Wednesday and the L-N boys made the most of the event. They played a more aggressive game than in recent games and it paid off.

In spite of playing up two classes, L-N gave Hershey a solid effort, just suffering a couple of scoring droughts. In the Gothenburg game, six players got into the scoring game, giving Coach Brown a balanced team that used a strong 4th quarter to earn the victory.

The game summaries:

L-N – HERSHEY: 42-52: This was a hard game to lose. It appeared early in the game the Raiders were playing well enough to bring home the victory. However, something happened on the way to the finish line.

Keith Miller got the Raiders off to a great start with four early points and L-N led most of quarter 1. After a little bit, Cole Troudt and Krayton Kucera found the 3-pt. range and scored. The Raiders had several scoring droughts in the game and one came at the end of the first period cutting the L-N lead to 15-14 at the end of quarter 1.

Hershey had pretty good defensive anticipation and were able to disrupt a number of Raiders' plays, but Krayton and Cole continued to hit from the three point range. Interestingly, at half time, the score, the turnover numbers and the fouls were identical for both teams: score 26-25; turnovers: seven each; fouls: three each.

2nd half: For a 'non-contact' sport, Hershey seemed to be able to get a lot of hands on Raider players. I don't know if this had an effect, but L-N had another scoring drought while Hershey built a scoring lead they didn't give up. Logan Menke found the range in the third period to help keep L-N close, but Trevor Biltoft's two points late in the game were the only points put on the scoreboard by L-N in the last 4 minutes of play.

Another interesting sidelight of the game was that L-N had only three fouls through the first 3 quarters of play.

(Scoring, rebounds, assists): Trevor Biltoft 6, 1, 1; Cole Troudt 6, 4, 1; Krayton Kucera 14, 2, 1; Logan Menke 10, 8, 2; Tyson Kotinek 0, 5, 2; Blake Wroughton 0, 2, 2; Keith Miller 6, 4, 0; L-N 42, 26, 9; Hershey: No stats.

Three points shots: L-N 9-21; Cole 2-3, Krayton 4-8, Logan 3-10.

Free throws: L-N 1-7; Trevor 0-3, Logan 1-2, Keith 0-2.

Fouls: L-N 12.

L-N – GOTHENBURG: 40-33: Finally, the game the Raiders have been looking for in this young season. Looking up two classes, the D-1 Raiders defeated the class C-1 Gothenburg team in their second game of the Hershey Holiday tournament last week. The victory broke a four game losing streak and saw the Raiders regain a little of an aggressive game plan. The game was just plain interesting.

To prove it was an 'Up-and-Down' game just look at the quarter scores:

L-N 6 16 6 12 - 40

Gothenburg 12 3 12 6 - 33

Little things made the game interesting. Things like: Trevor Biltoft was able to save L-N from an early turnover and turned the action into the first two points for the Raiders. Later in the first period, Keith Miller scored by driving to the basket as well as any point guard. Gothenburg, however, had a good first period, hitting 40 percent of their field goals.

Quarter 2: That aggressiveness mentioned paid dividends in this period. L-N hit close to 40 percent from the field in this period. However, Gothenburg had a defender following Krayton around "all the time". To replace some of Krayton's scoring other players simply stepped up. Cole Troudt and Logan Menke each put in 3-pt. shots and Blake Wroughton maybe had his best game of the season as he rebounded and scored 4 points in this period. Krayton also did find room to add five points to the team total as well. The defense? They held Gothenburg scoreless for the first three minutes and the last three minutes of the period. Half time score: 22-15.

Quarter 3: Scoring from under the basket came from the Raider's 'big' men. Keith and Blake added points and the 'sweet' play came in the middle of the quarter when the Gothenburg defender lost where Krayton was at. The ball was out at the top of the key and Krayton just sort of 'wondered' around the players under the basket all by himself when Logan spied him and hit him with the ball for an assist when Krayton scored.

Quarter 4: L-N's one point lead disappeared early in this period. However, five players found a way to score in this period. Blake, Logan and Trevor all scored early before Cole hit a 3-pt. shot. Gothenburg scored with about three minutes left in the game and that ended the scoring for them. The victory was secured by the Raiders hitting 5 of 6 free throws in this period.

The victory was much needed and hopefully will give the boys a boost as they settle in for the regular season to continue. This game resembled the early season victories and the boys just looked comfortable with their game.

(Scoring, rebounds, assists): Trevor Biltoft 4, 10, 4; Cole Troudt 7, 5, 1; Krayton Kucera 11, 4, 1; Logan Menke 6, 12, 3; Tyson Kotinek 0, 0, 1; Blake Wroughton 8, 3, 0; Keith Miller 4, 3, 0; L-N 40, 37, 10. Gothenburg: No stats.

Three points shots: L-N 4-15: Cole 2-6, Krayton 1-6, Logan 1-3.

Free throws: L-N 6-10. Trevor 2-2, Cole 1-4, Krayton 2-2. Logan 1-2.

Fouls: L-N 9.

With school resuming this week, so does the full schedule of game. McCool Junction visited Nelson on Tuesday night; Today (Thursday) Jan. 7 there will be a trip to Giltner. Next Tuesday the Raiders will travel to Rock Hills.