By Bruce Karnick

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The Raiders boys’ basketball season came to an abrupt end in the first round of the section playoffs with a loss to Eastview, but there was far more to the loss than the scoreboard showed. The loss meant the last time playing together for eight players and the manager Brady Zak. The loss meant those nine boys, who have been together for most of their high school career are no longer going to be together again as a team, a team that – despite going 5-22-0 on the season – always kept the brotherhood mentality first.

Winning can be a big component of having fun in any sport and that holds true for academic based athletics. It’s always more fun to win. Sure, the Raiders had hoped to win more than five games this year, but that didn’t seem to matter as much to them as it does other years. This year seemed to be more about the group as a whole, no matter the outcome. The group won and lost together. When one player was having an off night, someone else picked the team up. When one went down with an injury or illness, another stepped up.

Hastings saw wins against East Central, Two Rivers, Hill-Murray twice, and North St. Paul. The most impressive game of the year came at South St. Paul. In the first meeting, the Packers, who have been ranked as one of the top five schools in the state for the entire season, won by 30. South St. Paul finished the regular season as the number two team of Class AAA with a 27-0 record. The Raiders held them to 76 points in the second game, losing by 13. That is four points below the Packers team average and nine fewer than the previous game, a large improvement for a Hastings team missing one of its starters due to an injury.

The nine seniors are Will Hubbard, Michael Mitchell, Luke Austin, Brock Mosher, Axel Arnold, Ty Krick, Jonathon Watson, Max Savage and team manager Brady Zak.

Photo courtesy of Beck Photography/dennyb.zenfolio. com.