Raiders on four-game win streak

by John R. McNeil II

With one week left in the season, the Raiders are sitting at 12-6 overall win-loss record with a four-game win streak.

The wins have put the Raiders in third place in the Central Washington 2B North behind the Okanogan Bulldogs and ahead of the Liberty Bell Mt. Lions.

"Our guys never stopped playing, and with our injuries and setbacks that we were dealing with throughout this week, different guys stepped up and knew we had to really put a full team effort together this week in order to go 3-0, which was what our goal was at the beginning of the week," Head Coach Matt Simpson said.

The week started with a 61-51 win at Manson Jan. 27. The Raiders hit three of 13 from the three-point arc. LR was better at the free-throw line at Manson, sinking at 75 percent.

Jackson Louie was the high-point man with 16. Chance Garvin led the team with 10 rebounds, and Austin Rosenbaum recorded five steals at Manson.

LR fell behind Manson early, then went on a 13-0 run to end the first quarter eight points ahead, and 10 by the half, 29-19. The Trojans never reclaimed the early lead.

With that win under their belts, the Raiders came home on Jan. 29 to take on the Oroville Hornets.

Theron Nault opened the scoring for the Raiders, who fell behind the Hornets early in the first by six. LR rallied, and at the end of the first still trailed but by only by three, 16-13.

The Raiders took the lead in the second and held the Hornets to just two points for the quarter. The Raider press confused the Hornets causing them to make bad passes creating Raider takeaways. Fouls became an issue early and the crowd became vocal in their frustration about the amount of fouls called.

In the second half, the Raiders took off with the game and cruised to a big win. Oroville shut down and gave up 41 points to the Raiders, while LR allowed Oroville to score just 13. The final was 71-31 for Lake Roosevelt.

The Raiders made six of 19 three-pointers, and made 53.6 percent free throws. Jackson Louie again led the Raiders, with 14 points. Jesse Louie led the team in rebounds with seven, and Chance Garvin swiped three steals.

After a big win, the Raiders hosted the Tonasket Tigers Friday, looking for win number four. Tonasket was not going to give the win to the Raiders on a platter. Tonasket took the lead early and held it for most of the game. LR tied on several occasions, but it was not untill the fourth quarter when the Raiders seriously began to challenge the Tigers.

In the fourth, the Raiders took advantage of Tiger mistakes to close the game to four points. Then Jesse Louie hit a three to close the game to just one point with only a minute left.

Tonasket made two free throws to nudge the lead back out to three. Then with only six seconds remaining in regulation, Jacob Palmer hit a three that tied the game up at 57 apiece. The Tigers then dribbled the ball into the corner and ran time out, setting up overtime.

In overtime, neither team could make a basket until Chance Garvin hit a three with less than two minutes left in the period. Tonasket ran out of gas and did not answer.

The Raiders came away with the 65-59 win, their fourth in a row.

Garvin led the team in three categories with 18 points, seven rebounds, and four steals. LR shot 28 percent from the three-point line and 57 percent at the free-throw line.

After a month of three game weeks, LR has only two for the final week of the regular season. The Raiders took on the number-one Brewster Bears last night in Brewster. On Friday it is Senior Night at Lake Roosevelt against number-two Okanogan, starting at 7:30 p.m.

Scoring at Manson

1 2 3 4 Final

LR 15 14 15 17 61

Man 7 12 16 16 51

Garvin 10, Jackson Louie 16, Jesse Louie 6, Nault 4, Nicholson 2, Picard 3, Redstar 6, Rosenbaum 14

Scoring vs Oroville

1 2 3 4 Final

LR 13 17 18 23 71

Oro 16 2 6 7 31

Desautel 0, Garvin 9, Jackson Louie 14, Jesse Louie 12, Nault 9, Nicholson 8, Nomie 5, Palmer 1, Redstar 4, Rosenbaum 9

Scoring vs Tonasket

1 2 3 4 OT Final

LR 11 14 13 19 8 65

Ton 15 18 10 14 2 59

Desautel 0, Garvin 18, Jackson Louie 1, Jesse Louie 10, Nault 0, Nicholson 2, Palmer 15, Redstar 13, Rosenbaum 6