The Raider boys’ basketball team (5-2) returned to action Jan. 3 at Hill-Murray (4-4) where they defeated the Pioneers 71-61. The following day, Hastings traveled to Rochester to take on John Marshall (6-2) where they fell 78-71.
Against Hill-Murray, the first half stayed relatively close with several lead changes and by the first intermission, Hastings clung to a 3-point lead, 34-31. The success in the first half was Hastings continuing the stout defense and key Raiders having offensive accuracy.
The second half the Raiders did a good job keeping the Pioneer shooters off balance and Matthew Foss continued his offensive clinic capping off a 25-point game. Hastings slowly crept away from the Pioneers, and they finished the game with a 10-point victory, 71-61.
Hastings scored on 27 of their 51 shots, shooting 52.9 percent from the floor including 5 of 13 (38.4 percent) from beyond the three-point line. They were locked in at the free throw line shooting 12 of 15 for 80 percent.
Matthew Foss led the scoring with 25 points including going 2-2 with three pointers. Matthew also had six rebounds, two assists and two steals. Weston Schult scored 16 while logging four rebounds, six assists and four steals. Lukas Foss scored 13 with three rebounds, one assist and two steals.
The only details available for the trip to Rochester is the score, a 78-71 loss for Hastings. With Hastings scoring 71 points in back-to-back games, it seemed as though there was a pattern forming for Hastings and that gave a little pause to look back at the schedule and the scores of the various games.
Except for two games, the very first game of the season and against Two Rivers, the magic number for Hastings seems to be 80 points. When Hastings scores 80 points a game, there is a very good chance they are going to walk away with a victory. Three of the six wins were when Hastings scored 80 or more and they could have had a fourth against a very good John Marshall team.
Overall, the boys are averaging a 49 percent success rate on shots from the floor. The number one team in the state is Cretin-Derham Hall and they are only averaging 51.5 percent from the floor. Cretin is averaging 85.2 points per game with Hastings averaging 67.2 points per game. Hastings has a higher free throw success rate than Cretin 64.2 percent to 57.8 percent and a higher three-point percentage than Cretin. 34.8 to 32.7. Based on those numbers, Cretin is just shooting more shots than Hastings.
While the numbers are fun to look at, there is more to the game than just taking more shots and those numbers are put there to show that the Raiders are doing very well this season. They are holding their own against some tough competition with only two losses to Minnesota teams.
Up Next
Things will not get easier for the Raiders; Tartan currently leads the Metro East Conference followed by Two Rivers, North St. Paul and Hastings. Hastings will host North St. Paul (4-0) on Jan. 10, Red Wing (5-5) on Jan 14 and Tartan (8-0) on Jan 17, all three games scheduled for a 6:30 p.m. tip.