L-N Raiders win two, record is 11-11

 

February 18, 2021

Zeke Meyer (22) works his way around Lawrence-Nelson defenders Krayton Kucera (14) and Cole Troudt (4) during Friday's game with Superior at Superior.

"Time flies when you're having fun . . ." As the old saying goes. It didn't seem all that long ago when the Raiders seemed to be having trouble getting their game together and had a record of 5 wins and 10 losses.

All of a sudden we're here near the end of the regular season and the Raiders have won six and lost one of their last seven games as they have been playing some of their best basketball of the season. The final regular season game is this Friday against a good Deshler team on the home floor in Nelson.

The boy's sub-district start next week. We don't know where at for sure, but the games are as follows:

Sub-district D1-6 at TBA

Game 1: 02/22, No. 4 Lawrence-Nelson 40.9545 (11-11) vs. No. 5 Thayer Central 39.5556 (5-13)

Game 2: 02/23, No. 1 BDS 44.6667 (16-5) vs. Winner of Game 1

Game 3: 02/23, No. 3 Deshler 42.3333 (13-5) vs. No. 2 McCool Junction 43.3500 (15-5)

Game 4: 02/25, Winner of Game 2 vs Winner of Game 3

The game summaries:

L-N – HARVARD: 45-37: The Raiders were racing to the end of the regular season winning four of their last five games, and . . . they hit a speed bump.

Not a bad bump, however.

It was just that the first game last week was sort of special, in a number of ways.

First off, the second last game of the year at home, the coaches made arrangements for Blake Janda to play. Blake missed almost all of the football season and all the basketball season to date because of an injury suffered in the football season. As such, Harvard was gracious enough for L-N to win the opening tip. The ball went to Janda who drove the floor to score. The Raiders then returned the favor and allowed Harvard to score two points of their own to even the scoreboard.

However, the game may have been a little closer than most anticipated. That, plus a significant number of events made keep most fans locked in on the game. For example:

* The 3-17 Harvard team led the last several minutes of the 1st period and the first few minutes of the second period.

* Trevor Biltoft's free throw gave L-N the lead with 4:20 left in the second period and the Raiders held that lead the rest of the game. However, early in the 4th period, that lead was only one point.

* Free throws . . . coaches preach how important they are in most all games. In this game, the Raiders made 16 of 26 (62 percent) Making the most of any game this year. Harvard had two technical fouls called on them. Logan and Keith learned the law of physics don't always apply to basketball. Each had free throws go into the net and then rim-out. The Raiders made nine of their last eleven free throw attempts. Interestingly, Harvard shot only two free throws and missed both.

* Just to make things interesting, Trevor had several summersaults in the game. Seems to becoming a habit for him.

* Rebounding: Trevor helped lead the team with seven and Keith had nine, scoring all six of his points putting rebounds back up for points.

* L-N had 8 turnovers, the fewest of the season and nine fouls, the second lowest of the season.

* L-N had zero fouls in the first quarter and Harvard had zero turnovers in the first quarter. The game was interesting, exciting and fun (since it was the fifth of six games the Raiders

won).

Krayton led the Raiders in scoring with 18 points.

(Scoring, rebounds, assists): Trevor Biltoft 3, 7, 4 ; Conner Cannaday 0, 1, 0; Cole Troudt 5,1, 0; Peyton Mazour 0, 0, 0; Krayton Kucera 18, 4, 1; Blake Janda 2, 0, 0; Logan Menke 8, 3, 1; Tyson Kotinek 0, 2, 0; Blake Wroughton 0, 1, 0; Keith Miller 6, 9, 1; Erik Wheeland 3, 0, 1; L-N 45, 28, 8; Harvard 37, 24, 9.

Three points shots: L-N 5-19: Krayton 3-10, Erik 1-2, Logan 1-3; Harvard 7-17.

Free throws: L-N 16-26: Trevor 3-4, Cole 3-4, Krayton 5-6, Logan 3-6, Keith 2-4; Harvard 0-2.

Fouls: L-N 9, Harvard 21.

L-N – SUPERIOR: 44-33: Down to the second last game of the regular season and the Raiders get to travel in frigid weather south to Class C-2 Superior. Now Superior is not having their best basketball season, standing at 3-16, but you'd never know it by the way the game started.

L-N 15 12 5 12 – 44

Superior 14 2 10 7 – 33

Superior jumped out to a 10-4 lead in the first three minutes of the game as they hit on 4 of 5 field goals. They maintained a lead right down to where there was only five seconds left in the first period and Logan Menke made his first 3-pt. shot of the game. Score: 15-14.

Quarter 2: L-N defense was the highlight of this period, specifically defensive rebounding. Superior was held to one of nine field goals and Logan got his second steal and layup. The period ended with Trevor Biltoft scoring his first 3-pt. shot of the season, and it came as the buzzer ended the period. Score: 27-16.

Quarter 3: Blake Wroughton gets up and down the court OK and early in this period, he sort of got down court quickly after two Superior free throws. Superior threw a full court press on the Raiders, but L-N broke the press, a guard saw Blake standing un-guarded under the basket and threw him the ball and he scored. However, there wasn't much scoring for L-N in this period and Superior inched back on the scoreboard. Score: 32-26.

Quarter 4: The first four minutes were scoreless, for both teams. Logan then sank back-to-back 3-pt. shots to give the Raiders a boost. The last minute of the game was highlighted by Keith Menke who scored two field goals after pulling down offensive rebounds and scoring on a free throw attempt.

We have been unable to obtain the official statistic report, but unofficially, the scoring was: Logan Menke 20, Trevor Biltoft 7, Krayton Kucera 10, Blake Wroughton 2, Keith Menke 5.

The Raider's final regular season game is on their home court this week Friday as they entertain a good Deshler boy's team. Sub-district play for the boys is next week.

 

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