Raiders split games, play Waterville on Friday

The Raider basketball team split their districts games this weekend, defeating Walla Walla Valley Academy before losing to Kittitas. The boys play Waterville on Friday.

In Grandview on Feb. 9, the Raiders defeated Walla Walla Valley Academy with a final score of 66-60.

"It was a back-and-forth game the whole way," said Assistant Coach Ty Egbert. "Towards the end of the fourth quarter, we had a pretty good lead of 16 points or so, then we started getting relaxed, but we stepped it up and got focused."

Trevor McCraigie led the Raiders with 32 points, nearly half the Raider points in the game.

The following day the Raiders played Kittitas and lost in an 89-49 landslide.

"They're a well coached team," Egbert said. "They're very fundamental; they know how to expose your weaknesses and attack it."

The Kittitas Coyotes' Bailey Gibson and Brock Ravet were the big problems for the Raiders, with 26 points for Gibson and 23 for Ravet, a junior who has a scholarship in line to play basketball for the Gonzaga Bulldogs after high school.

The Raiders face off against Waterville on Friday, Feb. 16, in Granger at 7:30 p.m., with the loser eliminated and the winner moving on to play either White Swan or DeSales at 12:30 p.m. the next day.

The winners will move onto regionals at the Spokane Arena the following weekend.