The Superior Express -

After a two week vacation from the grind of the basketball season, the L-N Raiders got back into the swing of the season by playing three games last week. They picked up two wins against class D-1 schools, but then lost to one of the leading teams in the area, Silver Lake who holds a 13-3 record to this date.

Brief summaries of the game go something like this:

L-N BOYS – ROCK HILLS: 47-23: After more than two weeks of enforced vacation time (enforced by Mother Nature that is) the basketball season resumed throughout south central Nebraska. Rock Hills (RH) visited the friendly confine of the Nelson gym for this first game.

The Raiders gave a good account of themselves and won the game with might be called a “Run-Away.”

Score by quarter:

L-N 15 11 8 13 - 47

RH 7 4 9 3 - 23

Coach Brown played 10 players in the game and all ten contributed to the 48-29 rebound margin the Raiders had. Seven players scored in the game led by Nolan Ostdiek and Clay Williams.

L-N forced 24 turnovers while giving up the ball only 11 times. Connor Janda led the team with four steals. Jack Williams led the team in rebounds with 12.

The game was a great response to the weather delayed season. Most everyone on the team had a chance to play and contribute.

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

Aidan Zikmund 0-1, 0-0, 3, 0

Carter Griffis 3-7, 0-0, 4, 7

Caden Culbertson 2-5, 0-0, 5, 4

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

Jack Williams 2-6, 3-4, 12, 7

Connor Janda 2-6, 0-0, 1, 4

Nolan Ostdiek 4-14, 3-4, 8, 11

Clay Williams 5-15, 0-0, 7, 10

Sawyer Cox 2-7, 0-0, 2, 4

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

L-N team total: 20-58, 6-8, 48, 47

RH team total: 8-36, 5-8, 29, 23

L-N BOYS – BLUE HILL: 45-35: The second game of the last week involved a trip to Blue Hill and the boys came home with a nice victory. At first it seemed to be repeat of the first game of the week, but a cold third quarter gave Blue Hill a chance to get back into the game.

Score by quarter:

L-N 15 14 3 13 - 45

Blue Hill 3 7 13 12 - 35

As can be seen, the Raider recovered well in the final period and held on for the win.

A couple of stats help give a hint as to the victory ingredients. First came offensive rebounds where Nolan Ostdiek and Clay Williams pulled down enough to lead the team in scoring and-or second chances to score. Williams was one rebound away from a double-double in scoring and rebounding.

Free Throw shooting was the second highlight. While not outstanding, the 12 made Free Throws doubled what Blue Hill had.

Nolan Ostdiek led the team in scoring with 16, making over 50 percent of his attempts both from the field and the charity stripe. Clay Williams scored 10 points and had 9 rebounds five assists and 3 steals. Connor Janda had one of his better night and Bayln Bargen and Jack Williams both had significant contributions.

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

Carter Griffis 0-5, 2-4, 2, 2

Bayln Bargen 2-10, 2-2, 3, 8

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

Connor Janda 3-7, 0-2, 3, 9

Nolan Ostdiek 6-10, 4-7, 6, 16

Cody Funk 0-0, 0-0, 1, 0

Clay Williams 3-11, 4-6, 9, 10

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

L-N team total: 14-46, 12-21, 33, 45

B/H team total: 14-40, 6-14, 26, 35

L-N BOYS – SILVER LAKE: 27-55: After a couple of victories over teams with poorer records, the Raiders ran into one of the current better teams last Friday when they traveled to Silver Lake (SL). Silver Lake is currently 13-3 for the season.

The game was one of contrasts after the first period. In that first period, the Raiders kept pace, trailing only three points with a little over a minute to play. However, after that period, the contrasts began to show in a serious manner. SL made close to 50 percent of their field goals while L-N made only 23 percent. Free throws also favored SL by a large percentage.

“Off the bench” players were major contributors in this game. Jack Williams led all scorers with eight points while Carter Griffis and Sawyer Cox each had seven.

Raider rebounding was a strong aspect of the game as they had 34 while SL had 35. L-N rebounding was led by one of the smaller players on the court, Bayln Bargen who had six rebounds and Clay Williams who had seven.

Steals, blocks and turnovers favored SL, but not by much.

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

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

Carter Griffis 3-8, 0-0, 5, 7

Hayden Mazour 0-0, 1-2, 0, 1

Caden Culbertson 0-1, 0-0, 0, 0

Bayln Bargen 0-7, 0-2, 6, 0

Jack Williams 4-5, 0-0, 5, 8

Connor Janda 0-2, 0-0, 0, 0

Nolan Ostdiek 1-6, 0-0, 2, 2

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

Clay Williams 0-6, 2-5, 6, 2

Sawyer Cox 3-9, 1-2, 4, 7

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

L-N team total: 11-47, 4-11, 34, 27

SL team total: 18-47, 10-18, 35, 54

This week the boys take part in the Twin Valley Conference tournament where they are the number three seed and play Giltner in their first game on Tuesday night.