Raiders still have shot at regionals

To stay alive in post-season basketball, the Raider boys must defeat a team they last took down at home - in overtime.

In the second week of the District 5-6 Tournament tomorrow at Eastmont High School, Lake Roosevelt will face Waterville in a loser-out game starting at 8:30 p.m. LR needs to beat the Shockers to move on to the regional tournament. If the Raiders win, they will face the winner of the Warden/Mabton game in a regional seeding game on Saturday at Eastmont High School starting at 4 p.m.

In the opening game of the district tournament, the Raiders faced the Warden Cougars Feb. 11 at Eastmont Jr. High. Warden had defeated the Raiders in the regular season and the Raiders were looking for payback.

Warden went on a 10-0 run to start the game. But LR came back with Jesse Louie and Jacob Palmer leading the charge, ending the first quarter trailing 17-10.

In the second quarter, Warden hit a couple threes that pushed the lead, one from the NBA line. Then Chance Garvin dunked the ball, sparking the Raiders to rally. With shots from Austin Rosenbaum and Jacob Palmer, LR claimed their first lead of the night toward the end of the second, and the half closed with the Raiders down by just two, 26-24.

In the third quarter, LR built and maintained a small lead, outscoring Warden by 10 points to start the fourth with a 36-28 advantage.

A series of turnovers that started in the third carried over to the fourth quarter, when LR almost succumbed to a Warden comeback before capitalizing on critical Cougar mistakes to seal the win for the Raiders 46-40.

The heroes for LR against Warden were Jesse Louie, Jacob Palmer, and Austin Rosenbaum. All three made clutch shots and plays that kept the Raiders going in the down turns and pushing ahead in the up swings.

On Saturday at Eastmont High, the Raiders matched up against the Brewster Bears for the third time this season. The final score was the closest of any matchup this season. Brewster came away with its third win over LR by the final of 65-39.

Tomorrow's opponent, Waterville, lost its first game of the tournament to Okanogan 80-43, then squeaked past Liberty Bell 51-45. LR defeated the Shockers on Jan. 10 in Grand Coulee in overtime 75-67.

Scoring vs Warden

1 2 3 4 Final

LR 10 14 12 10 46

War 17 9 2 12 40