It was a tough holiday break and initial January game for the L-N boys' basketball team. Three games went into the lost column for the season. The season record stands at 6 wins and 5 losses for the beginning of this week.

However, a closer look at the record quickly shows that four of the five losses were to schools in larger classes than our L-N school. The breakdown: one loss to a C-1 school; two losses to C-2 schools and one loss to a D-1 school. The other loss was to a D-2 school that currently has a 12-0 record. Seven of the 11 games played this season have been against larger schools. Hopefully the experience against the larger schools will benefit the boys as the season goes on.

The game summaries:

BOYS – GILTNER: 43-32: The second game of the New Year saw Giltner visit the Raiders on the friendly confines of the hardwood in Nelson. The 43-32 victory belonged to the Raiders almost from the beginning as the box score shows.

L-N 15 14 3 11 - 43

Giltner 5 5 9 13 - 32

The Raiders nailed down the win in the first half of play with several important plays. Bayln Bargen hit the first of his two, 3-pt. shots early in the game to give L-N a 5-0 lead. His other 3-pt. shot recorded the only points for L-N in the third period.

The second period also saw Nolan Ostdiek's block and Connor Janda's steal along with Clay Williams and Cody Funk each sinking 3-pt. shot all of which kept the Raiders in command of the game. The last half of the game saw something of a decline in the performance of L-N, but their defense was good enough to bring home the win. In fact, Giltner did not have a scorer record over six points for the game.

Game stats: (FG, FT, RB., Pts.) Bayln Bargen 2-8, 2-2, 2, 8

Jack Williams 1-5, 1-2, 9, 3

Connor Janda 2-8, 0-0, 4, 4

Nolan Ostdiek 4-9, 3-6, 8, 11

Cody Funk 1-3, 1-4, 0, 4

Caleb Griffis 0-0, 0-0, 1, 0

Clay Williams 6-10, 0-4, 7, 13

L-N total: 16-43, 7-18, 35, 43

Giltner total: 11-49, 5-10, 31, 32

BOYS – McCOOL JUNCTION: 42-58. The first game of the New Year was at class D-1, McCool Junction. The local boys kept almost even with MJ in the first and last periods and didn't give up a lot in the other two periods:

L-N 10 8 12 12 - 42

MJ 13 15 17 13 - 58

The Raiders ran into a MJ team with an 8-1 record that had a very good night shooting the ball, hitting almost 50 percent of their field goals. The MJ defense also gave the local boys trouble as they forced 24 turnovers.

Nolan Ostdiek with 18 pts. and 10 rebounds and Clay Williams with 13 points and 12 rebounds each recorded 'double-doubles' for the game. Bayln Bargen had four assists and Connor Janda had three.

Game stats: (FG, FT, RB. Pts.)

Aidan Zikmund 0-0, 1-2, 2, 1

Haydewn Mazour 0-0, 0-0, 1, 0

Jack Williams 3-5, 0-0, 6, 6

Connor Janda 0-5, 1-2, 4, 1

Nolan Ostdiek 7-16, 4-5, 10, 18

Cody Funk 0-0, 0-2, 2, 0

Clay Williams 5-13, 3-4, 12, 13

Carson Vaughn 0-2, 0-0, 0, 0

L-N total: 16-50, 9-15, 40, 42

MJ total: 25-52, 3-7, 13, 58

BOYS – GOTHENBURG: 34-59: The first game of the Holiday Tournament this year was against Class C-1 Gothenburg. The Raiders stayed almost even with Gothenburg in the first period, but could not handle the opponent's defensive pressure giving up 28 turnovers while forcing only 9. The score by quarter:

L-N 13 4 11 6 - 34

Gothenburg 16 11 16 16 - 59

On the positive side, the Raiders equaled Gothenburg's shooting percentage, both in the high 30 percent range and rebounds were equal with each team having 27. However, Gothenburg took 53 attempts in shooting the ball while L-N had only 33 attempts. Clay Williams was the only Raider scoring in double figures as he had ten points for the night. Clay also had three assists and two blocks to his credit.

Game stats: (FG, FT, RB., Pts.)

Aidan Zikmund 0-1, 0-0, 0, 0

Carter Griffis 0-2, 0-0, 2, 0

Hayden Mazour 0-0, 0-0, 1, 0

Bayln Bargen 1-4, 0-0, 1, 2

Jack Williams 1-2, 0-2, 3, 2

Connor Janda 1-2, 2-2 1, 4

Nolan Ostdiek 4-9, 0-0, 4, 8

Clay Williams 4-9, 1-3, 7, 10

Sawyer Cox 2-3, 4-6, 4, 8

Carson Vaughn 0-1, 0-0, 1, 0

L/N totals: 13-33, 7-13, 27, 34

Gothenburg: 20-53, 12-13, 27, 59

BOYS – HERSHY: 37-54: The second game of the Holiday tournament saw the Raiders playing the hosts, Class C-2, Hershey. The results were similar to the first game, but the outcome not decided quite so early in the game. The score by quarter:

L-N 8 12 7 10 - 37

Hershey 10 11 19 14 - 54

In spite of playing Hershey even up during the first half of play, a cold third period spelled the Raider's downfall. The interesting thing of this game was how similar many of the statistics were, or even in favor of L-N. L-N had 37 rebounds, Hershey had 25; L-N had 17 field goals, Hershey had 20; L-N had 12 assists, Hershey had 13.

However, Hershey had the advantage in field goal shooting and had made 11-13 free throws beside forcing 17 turnover while giving up only 11. Hershey also made about 50 percent of their field goal attempts.

It was maybe a 'win-able' game, but again playing a team two classes larger does not always go well.

Game stats: (FG, FT, RB. Pts.)

Carter Griffis 0-5, 0-0, 1, 0

Bayln Bargen 4-11, 0-0, 3, 10

Jack Williams 0-0, 0-0, 2, 0

Connor Janda 2-7, 0-0, 0, 4

Nolan Ostdiek 5-11, 0-0, 6, 10

Clay Williams 2-11, 0-2, 10, 4

Defense . . . Connor Janda, Lawrence-Nelson, takes the point in defending against Giltner last week. Also guarding the basket are Nolan Ostdiek and Bayln Bargen.

Sawyer Cox 4-10, 1-2, 11, 9

L-N total: 17-55, 1-4, 37, 37

Hershey total: 20-45, 11-13, 25, 54

If the weatherman permits, L-N entertains Mankato on Tuesday night and travels to Kenesaw on Friday.