The Superior Express -

The return to the classroom and scheduled basketball practices and games was welcomed by most high schools in Nebraska last week. The Raiders played well against two different opponents last week. In McCool Junction L-N had a very good first half of play but could not carry that into the 2nd half to tame a McCool powerful team (record now 8-1). Then on Thursday, L-N put together a strong game in most aspects to roll to an impressive victory over Giltner. The game summaries:

L-N – McCOOL JUNCTION: 40-48: The game is a study in ‘contrasting’ halves. The box score:

L-N 15 16 2 7 - 40

MJ 19 7 9 13 - 48

L-N played the Class D-1 powerhouse even-up for the first half, but the difference in the teams overall was the number of turnovers. L-N total 20 turnovers for the game, but most came in the 1stt and 3rd periods and MJ took advantage to secure the win.

Cole Troudt scored the first three points of the game for L/N and the last two of the first period, but the Raiders could not overcome the almost 60 percent shooting by MJ at the start of the game.

2nd Quarter: What a turnaround for L-N. The Raiders made 8 of 14 field goal attempts (57 percent) in this quarter. Raider Rebounding led to many of these points. Keith Miller’s six points helped to lead the charge.

Quarter 3: MJ’s full court defensive press paid off for them in terms of turnovers. L-N had 6 and MJ had zero in this period.

Quarter 4: In spite of a slight deficit the Raiders continued to fight hard, trailing only four points with 1 _ minutes to play. MJ made 4-5 free throws at the end to secure the win.

Cole Troudt with 11 and Keith Miller with 10 led the team in scoring. Trevor Biltoft, Logan Menke and Keith Miller each had seven rebounds. Cole had four assists.

(Scoring, rebounds, assists): Trevor Biltoft 4, 7, 2; Cole Troudt 11, 4, 4; Krayton Kucera 6, 3, 3; Logan Menke 6, 7, 1; Tyson Kotinek 3, 4, 2; Blake Wroughton 0, 2, 0; Keith Miller 10, 7, 0; L-N : 40, 34, 12; M J: 48, 31, 10.

Three points shots: L-N: 4-22: Cole 1-7, Krayton 2-6, Tyson 1-2; M J: 4-15.

Free throws: L-N: 6-10: Trevor 2-2, Logan 2-2, Blake 0-2, Keith 2-4; M J: 8-17.

Fouls: L-N 11; M J: 9.

L-N – GILTNER: 53-42: A trip north on Thursday provided a nice, hard earned victory for the Raiders. The win came after the Raiders withstood a 3rd quarter comeback attempt by Giltner and by virtue of shooting a season high field goal percentage (45 percent). Raider free throw shooting was also good (63 percent) which was close to a season high.

L-N 14 14 16 9 - 53

Giltner 11 8 15 8 - 42

Logan and Trevor open the scoring in the game with five points between them and midway through the first period, Keith, Cole and Krayton all contributed to the first period lead of 14-11.

The 2nd period went scoreless for quite a while at the beginning, but finally Krayton broke the ice and he was followed by Logan, Cole and Blake to maintain the Raider lead. The highlight may have been a Troudt steal and layup midway through the period. Half time: 28-19.

Giltner outscored L-N 11-5 in the first half of quarter 3 to trail by only three points. However, the Raiders recovered and outscored Giltner 11-4 in the last half of play to maintain their margin of victory. The highlight of this period may have been the steal and layup by Logan at the end of the period.

L-N hit four of six field goals in the first five minutes of play in the final period and then played a game of “keep-away” the final three minutes to safely put the game into the victory column.

Logan scored a game and season high points with 17; Cole had his second game in a row with double digit scoring and Krayton hit double figures scoring for his 8th game out of the ten played so far.

(Scoring, rebounds, assists): Trevor Biltoft 4, 7, 0; Cole Troudt 13, 2, 1; Krayton Kucera 12, 2, 3; Logan Menke 17, 3, 4; Tyson Kotinek 0, 3, 0; Blake Wroughton 5, 2, 1; Keith Miller 2, 2, 1; Erik Wheeland 0, 0, 2; L-N: 53, 21, 12; Giltner: 42, ? ?.

Three points shots: L-N: 6-15: Cole 1-2, Krayton 2-6; Logan 3-5; Giltner: 3-8.

Free throws: L-N: 5-8: Cole 2-2, Logan 2-4, Blake 1-2; Giltner: 7-11.

Fouls: L-N: 14; Giltner: 11.

A busy week ahead sees a trip to Rock Hills on Tuesday; a visit by Kenesaw on Friday and a trip to Axtell on Saturday afternoon.