The L-N boy's basketball team had been on quite a roll for the past two weeks. A four game winning streak was helping everyone put up with the bitter winter weather that came to visit south central Nebraska as of late. After winning two critical games before the tournament, L-N won the first two games in the tourney against No. 3 seed Kenesaw and No. 2 seed Silver Lake. However the championship game of the Tourney against No. 5 seed Blue Hill saw the Bob Cats from Blue Hill get a little revenge from the earlier loss to the Raiders.

The four game winning streak was a great tonic for the Raiders and hopefully will fuel a late season run into the sub-district tournament.

The Raiders played further into the conference tournament than they have for some years and made a name for themselves. A 2nd place trophy will grace their walls from the 2020-2021 basketball season. Game summaries for the semi-final and championship games from the tournament follows:

L-N – SILVER LAKE: 47-39: I'm not sure how the players and coaches felt, but the L-N fans were sure excited. Having already defeated the No. 3 seeded Kenesaw in their opening game in the Twin Valley Conference tournament, the No. 6 seeded L-N Raiders took on the No. 2 seeded Silver Lake (SL) on Thursday evening.

Ya, the same SL team the Raiders played just about a week before. The same SL team with the No. 2 highest scoring player in south central Nebraska. Ya, the game promised to be "exciting."

And it was . . . from the opening tip to the final buzzer.

L-N 11 15 8 13 – 47

SL 11 10 7 11 – 39

Quarter 1: Trevor Biltoft scored the first points of the game on a driving lay-up as well as the Raider's 3rd and 4th points as the score changed hands several times before the period ended. Among the many good plays by the Raiders was a SL shot blocked by Blake Wroughton. SL tied the game just seconds before the period ended at 11-11.

Quarter 2: Quick scoring for the Raiders in each period was almost a hallmark for this game. Keith Miller put two points on the Raider's scoreboard in this period on the first L-N possession of the period. Logan Menke and Keith alternated scoring for L-N. A bit later, sophomore Erik Wheeland was in the game found himself alone and just outside the 3-pt. arc . . . so he aimed the ball and made his first 3-pt. shot of the season. Krayton Kucera made his second 3-pt. shot of the game with the clock reading 0:01. Half time: 26-21.

Quarter 3: Trevor scored first again in this period, followed quickly by points from Cole and Krayton to give L-N a 34-21 lead. However, from there on for about eight minutes of playing time, the Raiders went scoreless. Silver Lake hit a 3-pt. shot at the buzzer and the score was 34-28.

Quarter 4: It took over two minutes of this period before Logan found the 3-pt. range and then another two minutes before Keith pulled down an offensive rebound and put it back up for two more points. SL, in the meantime closed in on the scoring to where they were only two points back at one point. However, the Raiders took care of business. They slowed down play, not taking a field goal attempt in the last three minutes and . . . Krayton made 6-6 free throws in the last minute of play and . . . the Raider defense held SL scoreless in that last minute of play.

L-N had one of its best games of the season in shooting percentage at 46 percent. However, other stats were not outstanding, just good and effective. The game was the 4th victory in a row for the Raiders.

(Scoring, rebounds, assists): Trevor Biltoft 7, 4, 0; Cole Troudt 6, 3, 1; Krayton Kucera 15, 0, 0; Logan Menke 10, 5, 0; Tyson Kotinek 0, 2, 0; Blake Wroughton 0, 2, 0; Keith Miller 6, 5, 0; Erik Wheeland 3, 0, 0; L-N 47, 21, 1; SL: 39, No stats.

Three points shots: L-N 8-18: Cole 2-6, Krayton 3-6, Erik 1-1, Logan 2-4; SL: 4-15.

Free throws: L-N 7-12: Trevor 1-4, Krayton 6-6, Logan 0-2; SL 9-17.

Fouls: L-N 12; SL 15.

L-N – BLUE HILL: 29-47: To be fair, Blue Hill played a very good game in this championship game of the Conference Tournament. They made over 40 percent of their field goal attempts and their defense limited the Raiders to just over 20 percent. However, to put it simply, it seemed that someone pulled the plug on the Raider team's "spark". It seemed that they were fighting an uphill battle for the whole game.

To start with, close shots have been falling for the Raiders in recent games but in this game, they didn't, in fact, overall shooting may have been the lowest of the season. They had many a shot row around the rim and then roll outside the hoop. Blue Hill hit almost 60 percent from the field in the first quarter of play.

L-N 7 3 8 11 – 29

Blue Hill 16 9 12 10 – 47

L-N cut their deficit down to ten points with a 7-2 scoring run early in the second half. Keith Miller, Krayton Kucera and Logan Menke scored the points, but Blue Hill had a scoring run of their own at the end of the period to continue to extend their lead.

Krayton Kucera led the Raiders in scoring for this game with 12.

(Scoring, rebounds, assists): Trevor Biltoft 8, 6, 0; Cole Troudt 2, 4, 1; Peyton Mazour 0, 1, 0; Krayton Kucera 12, 7, 0; Logan Menke 2, 3, 1; Tyson Kotinek 0, 0, 0; Blake Wroughton 0, 1, 0; Keith Miller 5, 3, 3; Keaton Mazour 0, 0, 0; L-N 29, 25, 5; Blue Hill 47, No stats.

Three points shots: L-N 3-15; Krayton 3-8.

Free throws: L-N 6-14; Trevor 2-3, Krayton 3-4, Blake 0-4, Keith 1-3; Blue Hill 6-6.

Fouls: L-N 8; Blue Hill 11.