Raider Boys Basketball has slim win; big loss

As noted before L-N plays a tough schedule and this week showed that clearly. The boys won over Class D-2 Shelton, but got bounced by Class C-2 EMF. Seems they often have won/loss weekend often because so many of the games

are against larger schools. The results of last weekend games:

L-N – SHELTON: 46-43: Last week, the first of two games before the Holiday break involved a trip to Shelton to play the 4-1 Shelton High School on Thursday night. The game was as interesting as the final score might indicate. The box score:

L-N 8 16 15 7 - 46

Shelton 13 8 12 9 - 42

If you went home at the end of the first period, you would have missed a good game. Wyatt Frey scored the first two points of the game, but the Raiders could not sustain a strong offense in this period, falling behind 11-4 at one point near the end of the period.

The second period was the opposite of the first. L-N went from only one turnover in the first period to eight in the second. However, as shown above, the scoring went from 8 to 16 points. In this period alone, the score was tied four times and the lead change hand five times. It started with less than a minute gone in the period when Aidan Zikmund fought over a loose ball, finally grabbing it and driving the length of the floor to score. Wyatt Frey and Caden Culbertson each scored six points in a four minute period before both teams went into a three minute scoring drought.

The Raiders continued a strong offense in the third period which started with Caleb Griffis making a left hands jump hook shot following quickly by Griffis making a left handed layup. The Raiders built up a 12 point lead before allowing Shelton to score six quick points in the last minute of the period.

The scoring slowed in the final period, but L-N made 3/6 from the field to maintain their lead.

Game stats were close with the exception of rebounding where The Raiders had a 38 – 23 edge. Frey with 19 and Culbertson with 16 led the Raider scoring. Frey also had 12 rebounds (giving him a double/double) and Griffis had 8 rebounds.

Statistics: (Scoring – Rebounds – Fouls) Aidan Zikmund 5 – 1 - 2; Wyatt Frey 19 – 12 - 1; Hayden Mazour 0 – 0 - 2; Caden Culbertson 16 – 5 - 2; Caleb Griffis 4 – 7 - 4; Jackson Williams 2 – 2 – 1. Raider total: 46 – 22 - 14; Shelton total 43 – 18 - 11.

L-N – EMF: 21-70: "The thrill of victory . . . and the agony of defeat."

The old 'saying' is borrowed from a TV show of many years ago. But it does still happen, and for the Raiders, both came right after one another last week. EMF (Exeter, Milligan, Friend) came to Nelson Friday night with an undefeated record of 5-0. They left with a record of 6-0. EMF is a class C-2 for basketball and has a strong history of good teams.

Quarter scoring was as follows:

L-N 3 10 5 3 - 21

EMF 19 21 17 13 - 70

The first five minutes were pretty even with the score being 3-6 in favor of EMF. Perhaps the best part of the game for L-N was the first four minutes of the second period. The Raiders had a 10-1 scoring edge, but still trailed 13-20 at the midpoint of the second period. However the last half of this period saw L-N suffer nine turnovers and went scoreless.

The Raiders may have set a record for the number of turnovers they had. Many came as the team was trying to feed an inside player. EMF turned many of the turnovers into points.

Carson Vaughn led the Raiders scoring with 12 making 4 of 8, 3-pt. shots. L-N stayed even with EMF on rebounds pulling down 26 to EMF's 29,

Statistics: (Scoring – Rebounds – Fouls) Aidan Zikmund 4 – 3 - 2; Hayden Mazour 0 – 3 - 2; Caden Culbertson 2 – 1 - 4; Caleb Griffis 0 – 4 - 1; Jackson Williams 2 – 4 - 0; Cooper Heikkinen 0 – 2 - 2; Carson Vaughn 12 – 1 – 2. Raider total: 21 – 26 - 16; EMF total 70 – 29 – 13.