Tyson Kotinek controls a long rebound and looks for a way to the basket, or to pass to a friendly face in the game last Friday evening when the L-N Raiders faced the Friend High School team in Nelson.
"Those few seconds will not hurt . . . don't worry . . ."
Nothing could have been further from the truth last Friday night at the High School gym in Nelson. Both teams came into the game with 2-2 records and it was an 'intense' game and those seconds mentioned above made the difference in the ball game.
Quarter 1: The teams played five minutes and L-N let by a point. Friend went scoreless for the final three minutes and L-N built up a five point lead. Logan Menke with 8 and Krayton Kucera with 4 did all the scoring in the period. 12-7.
Quarter 2: This is where it got interesting. Friend tied the game at 15-15 with 5:16 to play. The score was tied at 17-17, 19-19 and 21-21 as the clock wound down to 6 seconds showing in the first half of play. Friend hit a 3-pt. shot; the Raiders tried one but missed and a Friend player threw the ball from behind the half court line, and . . . made it as the buzzer was going off. (Six points in six seconds.) 21-27.
Quarter 3: The Raiders played Friend evenly in this period in spite of giving up more turnovers than they received. However, Friend hit a 3-pt. shot with four seconds left in the period. 32-46.
Quarter 4: Krayton hit three, 3-pt. shots early in this period while the Raider defense held Friend scoreless, cutting the score down to 41-46. Cole Troudt hit a free throw with a little under a minute in the game cutting the score to 53-58. Friend made four of eight free throws in that last minute to maintain their win. (The last two Friend points came in the last four seconds, giving them 11 points in the last six seconds of three different quarters.) 53-62
Krayton Kucera continued a good scoring year, leading the team with 19 points. Logan Menke recorded his second 'double-double' of the season with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Blake Wroughton and Logan each had three blocked shots.
(Scoring, rebounds, assists): Trevor Biltoft 5, 5, 0; Cole Troudt 6, 5, 4; Peyton Mazour 0, 0, 0; Krayton Kucera 19, 0, 3; Logan Menke 15, 11, 4; Tyson Kotinek 0, 4, 0; Blake Wroughton 0, 3, 1; Keith Miller 8, 3, 0; Erik Wheeland 0, 1, 0. L-N 53, 30, 12; Friend 62, ?, ?.
Three points shots: L-N 10-27; Friend 4-8.
Free throws: L-N 9-21; Friend 9-21.
Fouls: L-N 18; Friend 19.
The Raiders traveled to Shelton Tuesday for the final game before the Christmas holiday. Next week they travel to Hershey for their Holiday tournament. They play Hershey High School at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 29. They play again on Wednesday against either Gering or Gothenburg.
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