Lady Raiders are 4-1 in last five games

The L-N girls' basketball team is about three points away from winning their last five ball games. A two point loss to McCool Junction prohibited that claim to fame, but winning four of their last five games improved the team's record to 4-6 after five tough games to start the season. The girls played the Giltner game without several of their starter and needed an overtime period to win. However, that game should build a little character for the team in weeks to come.

L-N – McCOOL JUNCTION: 38-40: Two little points kept the Lady Raiders from a five game winning streak last week. The Tuesday game against class D-1 McCool Junction (MJ) got off to a slow start, caught up, but then had a nine minute scoring drought over the third and fourth quarters put the victory out of reach.

Addison McCloskey scored first for L-N, but MJ slowly took advantage of Raider turnovers to build a 17-7 lead mid-way through the second period. At about that point Kara Menke caught fire scoring ten straight point for the Raiders in the last four minutes of the second period. The box score:

L-N 5 15 9 9 - 38

M J 15 8 12 5 - 40

Early in the third period Maddy Laughlin, McCloskey, Brynn Harrison and Kali Cassell all scored in the first four minutes of the period and L-N led 29-28. An eight minute dry spell allowed MJ to regain a lead at 35-30.

The last four minutes of the game saw L-N out score MJ 9-5 fueled by eight points by McCloskey.

MJ had a huge advantage in rebounding 45 to 27, but the Raiders did force 28 turnovers while giving up 20. Menke and McCloskey led the team in scoring with 13 and 12 respectively. McCloskey had 3 assists and Bohlen and Menke led the team with four steals each.

Statistics: (Scoring – Rebounds – Fouls) Addison McCloskey 12 – 2 - 4; Kali Cassell 3 – 2 - 1; Bayleigh Bohlen 2 – 5 - 2; Maya Fanning 0 – 0 - 1; Vali Koehler 3 – 1 - 1; Kara Menke 13 – 7 - 2; Josie Hajny 0 – 1 - 1; Maddy Laughlin 2 – 1 - 0; Brynn Harrison 3 – 2 - 3; L/N total: 38 – 27 - 15 ; MJ total:40 – 45 - 12 .

L-N – GILTNER: 27-21 OT: The second game of last week was against the Giltner girls who seem to be having a rougher season than the Raiders, having won only one game for the year. As you might ask after looking after looking at the final score: "what happened to the offense from either team?" 48 points by both teams isn't a whole lot, especially in an overtime game. The box score looked like this:

L-N 1 6 7 4 9 - 27

Giltner 5 6 6 1 3 - 21

Offensive woes (for both teams) started with the opening toss-up. In that first period, L-N went over six minutes without a score, giving up nine turnovers in the period and going 0-5 from the field. Giltner did little better, making 2 of 15 field goals.

Addison McCloskey and Kali Cassell put points on the score board in the second period, but Giltner kept their four point edge at half time.

The third quarter saw a change coming for the Lady Raiders. Turnovers were reduced greatly and the defense held Giltner to only 1 field goal for the 8 minutes.

In spite of the low score, the game gave players and fans alike both anxiety and excitement at the same time. Josie Hajny scored early in the period to make the score 16-17. Addison scored at the 5:00 mark on the clock to make the score 18-17, the first Raider lead in the game.

Giltner was 0-7 at the charity stripe up to the 1:33 reading on the clock when they scored their only point in the period to tie the score at 18-18. L/N missed a pair of free throws and Giltner had a winning field goal nullified by a traveling call, so the game went into overtime.

The OT period saw Brynn Harrison come to life on offense, scoring six points that went well with two by Kali Cassell and one by Bayleigh Bohlen. Giltner was held to only three points, giving the Raiders a 27-21 win.

It may have been an "ugly win," but it was a win. Both teams may have had season lows in shooting percentages and season high in turnovers. The win was the fourth in the last five games with the lone loss in that stretch being a two point loss.

Statistics: (Scoring – Rebounds – Fouls) Addison McCloskey 8 – 6 - 5; Kali Cassell 6 – 5 - 2; Bayleigh Bohlen 1 – 7 - 3; Josie Hajny 3 – 9 - 1; Maddy Laughlin 0- 4 - 0; Codi Cannaday 3 – 2 - 2; Brynn Harrison 6 – 9 - 3 ; L-N total: 27 – 51 - 18; Giltner total: 21 – 30 - 13.

The girls have a busy time ahead. This week Tuesday they traveled to Mankato, Kansas to play Rock Hills; Friday Kenesaw come to Nelson to play; Saturday they travel to Axtell and Next Tuesday they play Deshler at home.