The Superior Express -

"Close but no cigar . . ." was what this reporter was told a number of times years ago while serving in the military. It meant a good, even great effort, but just didn't quite get the job done.

The Raiders took on two of the top teams in Class D-2 last week and gave each a run . . . coming close but not winning. Two very exciting games that would have been better only by winning. The summaries:

L-N – DILLER-ODELL: 42-56: The first of two games against top rated teams took place in Nelson last Tuesday when Diller-Odell (DO) came for the annual match-up. If all you have seen was the final score, you missed an interesting game.

This game resembled some aspects of life in the fact that so often little things creep up on you and have a bigger impact that you expect.

How quickly things change was demonstrated at the end of quarter 1. L-N had a 9-8 lead with about two minutes left in the period when L-N had a lid put on their basket and DO made their last four field goals to take a 18-9 lead.

Quarter 2: Cole Troudt put in back to back field goals for five points to start this period, but DO rebuilt their lead before Keith Miller, Trevor Biltoft and Krayton Kucera all scored in the final minute of play to whittle the scoring difference down a little.

Quarter 3: Two points by Trevor, Blake Wroughton and Erik Wheeland cut the DO lead to two points, 30-32 with three minutes left in the 3rd period. The teams traded points for the rest of the period with Logan ending the Raider scoring in the period with two free throws.

Quarter 4: Two 'defining moments' came in this period. To start with DO had a scoring run in the first three minutes of 10-3 and then L-N had a scoring drought of zero points in the last three minutes of the game.

A deciding factor in the game was the DO rebounding which either resulted in their scoring, or in limiting the Raiders from scoring.

One of the positive factors for L-N was their free throw shooting. L-N made 11-16, 69 percent, the high for the year. Logan Menke led the team in scoring with 15 and had four assists in the game. Also eight players added points in the game

L-N 9 14 13 6 – 42

DO 11 11 9 18 – 56

(Scoring, rebounds, assists): Trevor Biltoft 3, 4, 2; Cole Troudt 5, 3, 2; Krayton Kucera 8, 2, 0; Peyton Mazour 0, 0, 0; Logan Menke 15, 3, 4; Tyson Kotinek 4, 1, 0; Blake Wroughton 2, 3, 0; Keith Miller 3, 4, 1; Erik Wheeland 2, 1, 0; Clay Williams 0, 1, 0; L-N 42, 22, 9; DO 56, 34, 14.

Three points shots: L-N 7-27: Cole 1-4, Krayton 2-10, Logan 3-9, Tyson 1-2; DO: 5-14.

Free throws: L-N 11-6: Trevor 1-2, Logan 4-4, Tyson 1-2, Blake 2-2, Keith 3-6; DO 13-21.

Fouls: L-N 18; DO 13.

L-N – PARKVIEW CHRISTIAN: 50-53: The L-N Raider boys met the Lincoln Parkview Christian (PC) School in York last Friday. The game may well be one the boys will remember for some time. They faced the number one class D-2 team in the state with a record of 13-1. But play them, the Raiders did and though it is no fun to lose, L-N played a game to remember.

L-N 10 16 11 13 – 50

PC 22 11 12 8 - 53

Quarter 1: PC is a confident team that seemed to try to intimidate the Raiders to start the game and did jump out to an 8-0 lead to start the game. However, once the Raiders began to understand the PC style of play, they reacted and started to play the game to win.

Quarter 2: PC lived by the 3-pt. shot in the first half of play. However, L-N had an answer and that was teamwork. Five Raiders contributed to the 16 points for the quarter and cut PC lead to just seven points at half time.

Quarter 3: The teams traded points throughout this period and PC seemed to lose its 3-pt. shooting skill and again a lot of Raiders scored for the team.

Quarter 4: Keith Miller scored three quick points and PC decided to slow the pace of the game down at about the six minute mark as they started to lose players because of fouls. Cole Troudt and Krayton Kucera each scored to close the score to 44-48 with about three minutes left in the game. Keith, Logan and Krayton all scored to close the score to two points: 49-51 with 12 seconds left. PC maintained their lead with 2-4 free throws to win the game.

It's more fun to win than to lose, but the Raiders did play a team with a 13-1 record very well. A couple of highlights for the game: Cole Troudt scored a season high 16 points and tied his season high in rebounds and assists. In spite of giving up the height advantage to PC, the Raiders had a season high number of rebounds, 43; PC saw three players foul out of the game with their 25 fouls. That led to L-N shooting the highest number of free throws of the season and making the highest number for the season (15-26); Krayton was second high scorer in spite of the PC defenders hanging at his side all the game.

(Scoring, rebounds, assists): Trevor Biltoft 5, 5, 1; Cole Troudt 16, 4, 4; Krayton Kucera 14, 5, 1; Logan Menke 4, 10,2; Tyson Kotinek 0, 5, 1; Blake Wroughton 2, 4, 1; Keith Miller 8, 6, 0; Erik Wheeland 1, 4, 0; Peyton Mazour 0, 0, 0; L-N 50, 43, 10; P C 53, 30, 9.

Three points shots: L-N 3-21: Cole 2-5, Krayton 1-7; P C 6-18.

Free throws: L-N 15-26: Trevor 3-6, Cole 6-8, Krayton 3-4, Erik 1-1, Tyson 0-2, Blake 0-1, Keith 2-4; P C 13-19.

Fouls: L-N 18, P C