The old saying: "they come and they go" has been used at times concerning sporting events. However, now that the high school basketball season is getting well underway, that saying does not describe last Tuesday's game against Shelton. It ended being a heartbreaker as Shelton won the game in O. T. and by just one point.

The performances of the first three games of the season returned for L-N for the first half of play. However, the lid was on the Raider's basket for the last 20 minutes of the game and they could not pry it off, hardly at all.

The Raiders put together a great first half. Overall, they hit close to 40 percent from the field and recording almost 65 percent from behind the 3-point arc. The Raider passing was equal to the early season form and the defense forced more turnovers that they gave up. At one time in the first period, L-N scored 11 points in a two minute time span.

The last half of play was a different game altogether. Most everything good that happened in the first half, disappeared in the last half and O. T. The Raider highlight of the last half were two things: first, L-N hit 9-14 free throws; secondly, in the O. T. an outstanding couple of seconds saw Krayton make two free throws and just seconds later, Nolan Ostdiek blocked a Shelton shot and gave the ball to Krayton Kucera who fed a long pass to Logan Menke scoring under the basket, giving L-N a 39-37 lead with 48 seconds left in the game. However, Shelton scored a field goal and hit one of two free throws for the victory.

"The Fast Break" . . . fans don't hear that phrase often any more in basketball games. However, it is still a great part of the game. Above, Tyson Kotinek is about to score two points as he took a pass from a teammate about half court and raced to the basket beating the Shelton defender. Photo courtesy of Denise Mazour.

The score by quarter:

L-N 14 9 5 7 4 - 39

Shelton 10 2 12 11 5 - 40

Again, we've been unable to obtain the official stats, but unofficially the scoring looked as follows:

Bayln Bargen 2, Krayton Kucera 21, Conner Janda 3, Logan Menke 10, Tyson Kotinek 2, Nolan Ostdiek 1, Toby Kotinek 0.

Turnovers: L-N 11; Shelton 14.

This week the Raiders play in a Holiday Tournament in Hershey Tuesday and Wednesday.