On Friday, January 13, the 7th and 8th boys’ basketball teams traveled to Centerville for a pair of games. In the 8th grade game, the Raiders jumped out to an 8-4 lead after the first quarter and extended it to 15-8 at the half. We came out and pressured the Tornadoes in the 3rd quarter and created quite a few turnovers that lead to points for the Raiders. The highlight of the quarter was Jesse Zephier hitting a halfcourt shot at the buzzer to push the Raiders lead to 17. We got a lot of different guys playing time and experience in the 4th quarter as the Raiders pulled out the victory with a score of 28-15. The win improved their record to 2-0 on the season. Leading scorers were: Javian Pesicka with 10, Jesse Zephier with 8, Carlos Galindo with 5, Leon Fields with 3 and Benny Greger chipped in 2.

The 7th grade team took the court for their first action of the season after only 2 practices. The offense struggled scoring in the first quarter as they were held scoreless and were down 0-6 after 1. In the 2nd quarter, shots started falling and we got into a better rhythm on offense and cut the lead to 10-15 at the half. Baskets were hard to come by for both teams in the 3rd as the Tornadoes maintained a 6 point lead. The Raiders made a run in the 4th and pulled within 2, but couldn’t get over the hump as they fell to Centerville by a score of 20-26. Leading scorers were: Steven Peters with 10, Payne Petry with 4, and Brock Cournoyer and Cruise Koupal each with 3. The loss drops the 7th grade team’s record to 0-1 on the young season. Both teams are in action again on Tuesday, as they take on Burke at the Wagner Armory.