The Superior Express -

Life has a funny way to stepping up and slapping you in the face . . .

The L-N boys’ basketball team rolled to comfortable victories in the first three games of the season, but then ran into the always tough BDS team and learned they still had room to improve.

Last week, the boys picked up win No. 3 on a visit to Franklin, but then got slapped by BDS. The game summaries:

L-N – FRANKLIN: 54-30: The boys had control from the beginning as six players contributed towards the 21 points scored in the first period.

Franklin seems to have a deficit of boys this season as only eight boys were suited up for the game.

The Raider defense was tough for the game as Franklin was limited to only two field goals (or less) in three of the four quarters.

Scoring was shared by ten players for the game. Different players stepped up at different times in the game. Bayln Bargen scored first in the game with a 3-pt. shot. Krayton Kucera had most of his game high 12 points in the first period; Connor Janda went on a scoring spree at the end of the first period and start of the 2nd period; Nolan Ostdiek and Krayton scored well in the second period; Logan Menke got the team started in the 3rd quarter.

The score by quarter:

L-N 21 19 8 6 - 54

Franklin 6 8 12 4 - 30

We did not receive the official statistics by press time, but the unofficial scoring for L-N was: Bayln Bargen 3; Krayton Kucera 12; Logan Menke 6, Tyson Kotinek 3; Keaton Mazour 6; Connor Janda 9; Wyatt Brockman 4; Nolan Ostdiek 5; Clay Williams 4; Toby Kotinek 1.

L-N was 4-19 and Franklin was 0-5 from the 3-pt. line. Bayln 1, Krayton 2, Tyson 1 connected from behind the 3-pt. line for L-N.

Turnovers: L-N 9; Franklin 19.

L-N – BDS: 25-47: Bruning-Davenport-Shickley (BDS) is a traditionally strong basketball program. This year they featured a “tall” team and this game was the first time the Raiders faced such opposition. BDS’s tall man in the middle of the court scored a lot of points and pulled down a lot of rebounds.

The game was a complete turn-around from the Friday game. The Raiders did not score until over five minutes had expired in the first period. Krayton scored, followed by a pair of free throws by Connor and a field goal by Keaton and that ended the Raider scoring in the first period. Again in the 2nd period, the Raiders could not score early in the period.

The BDS coach later noted that their intent was to limit the scoring of Logan and Krayton and the two Raiders had defenders hanging on them most of the game.

We have not received official statistics for this game by press time, but unofficially the scoring for L-N was: Krayton Kucera 3, Connor Janda 4, Logan Menke 10, Keaton Mazour 2, Theo Kathman 2, Nolan Ostdiek 2, Erik Wheeland 2.

L-N was 2-19 (both by Logan) from the 3-pt. line and DBS was 1-10.

L-N had seven turnovers while BDS had 11.

L-N was 3-8 from the charity stripe and BDS was 12-16.

This week the Raiders travel to Friend on Friday and then are at home next Tuesday when they play Shelton.