Lady Raiders on six-game win streak

by John R. McNeil II

The Lady Raiders have been on a basketball hot streak, winning six in a row to improve their overall win-loss record to 11-7. In Central Washington 2B North LR is 10-2 and sitting in second place going into the last week of the season.

Ahead of LR is Okanogan, which has yet to lose a game, and in third place are the Brewster Bears, who beat Lake Roosevelt 38-34 at Grand Coulee.

The Lady Raiders came into last week's games on a three-game streak, and held off the Manson Trojans 39-30 last Tuesday to extend the streak to four.

Back in Coulee Dam Thursday night, the Lady Raiders took on the Oroville Hornets, who looked ready to end LR's win streak. After jumping ahead early the Hornets clawed their way back into the game. LR went on a scoring drought that extended into the second quarter allowing the Hornets ample opportunity to take the lead. An LR scoring burst gave them an eight-point lead at half.

Oroville outscored the Lady Raiders by seven in the third quarter. Oroville was given many second chances on offense because of missed Lady Raider rebounds. Fouls also started to become a factor for LR.

But in the fourth, the Lady Raiders built a small cushion, and earned victory number five, 48-40.

For the final game of the week, the Lady Raiders took on the Tonasket Tigers at Gailord Nelson Friday. The Tigers struggled offensively early on, but LR also struggled, leading to a low scoring first quarter.

But the Lady Raider offense came to life in the second quarter, outscoring Tonasket by nine points to lead the game at half 28-11.

The Tigers began to find the net in the third. Tonasket outscored LR and cut the lead down to 12 points. For Tonasket it was too little too late as LR set the cruise control in the fourth and the Tigers ran out of gas. The final was LR 44- Tonasket 25.

"A big reason for the win streak is we got healthy and many good things lined up at the right time to make it possible," Coach Wallace Pleasants said. "We have everyone off the bench contributing each game, not just two or three; everybody's in."

On what changed at the crossroads moment earlier in the season, "We changed our focus to one game at a time and what we needed to accomplish for that game." He continued, "We can compete and get better everyday."

With the number-two spot in the North for districts on the line, LR enters its final games of the regular season. After a month of three-game weeks, LR has just two for the final week.

Last night LR went to Brewster, where Pleasants was looking to take care of Markie Miller, the cornerstone of the Bears' team. On Friday, it is Senior Night as the Lady Raiders take on the number-one Okanogan Bulldogs at Gailord Nelson starting at 6 p.m.

Scoring vs Oroville

1 2 3 4 Final

Oro 8 10 16 6 40

LR 16 10 9 13 48

R. Epperson 12, A. Epperson 9, Moore 2, St. Pierre 7, Priest 3, Bearcub 6, Ensminger 0, Wilson 0, Schilling 9

Scoring vs Tonasket

1 2 3 4 Final

Ton 2 9 12 2 25

LR 10 18 7 9 44

R. Epperson 5, A. Epperson 7, Moore 14, St. Pierre 4, Priest 2, Bearcub 6, Ensminger 2, Wilson 2