The Wagner 7/8 basketball teams hosted the Bon Homme Cavaliers for a pair of Valentine’s Day games. In the 7th grade game, the Cavaliers came out hot on offense and kept the Raiders on their heels as the Raiders were down 13-5 after the first. It was more evenly matched in the 2nd, but Bon Homme was able to push their lead to 24-14 at the half. The Raiders played better defensively in the 2nd half as they cut their deficit down to 8 at the end of 3. The offense finally came to life as Brock Cournoyer and Steven Peters hit 3’s to bring the Raiders all the way back to tie it up late in the 4th quarter. Bon Homme managed to make a layup to regain the lead. The Raiders came back and got a good look under the basket that rimmed out, but we were fouled on the shot. We made 1 of 2 free throws to pull within 1 but were never able to get possession of the ball back before time expired. The final score saw the Raiders go down 32-31. The loss drops their season record to 8-4. Leading scorers were Cruise Koupal with 10, Payne Petry and Steven Peters with 7 each, Brock Cournoyer with 5, and Kayo Fischer with 2.

The 8th grade game kind of followed the same script as the 7th grade game as the Raiders came out flat and tried to do too much on their own instead of as a team and trailed after the first 11-6. The Raiders struggled holding the Cavaliers to one shot on offense and they were able to capitalize on the second chances as they increased their lead to 19-11 at the half. The second half saw the Raiders come to life offensively as they started to play better together and work the ball around as they were able to tie the score up at 21-21 at the end of the 3rd. They continued to hold the Cavaliers to one shot and were more efficient on offense in the 4th as they were able to pull out a 33-27 victory. The win raised their record to 12-0 on the season. Leading scorers were Jesse Zephier with 14, Javian Pesicka with 9, Carlos Galindo with 4, and Dominic Doom, Winston Little Moon, and Avery Medicine Bear all added 2. The Raiders host the MVP Titans at the Armory on Thursday.