The Raider Boys Basketball team (18-4) has extended their winning streak to nine and is keeping pace with the top team in the conference, Tartan (22-0), who they had a showdown with on Tuesday after this paper went to press. This past week, they took on Hudson and won 70-63, North St. Paul (11-7) and won 70-68, and Park of Cottage Grove (10-12) and won 78-67.
Against Hudson
The non-conference match up against Hudson kind of falls in that friendly exhibition type of game. The Raiders started this one slowly, with the boys missing a lot of shots and falling behind Hudson quickly. A large part of their lackluster first half performance was because their top scorer, Matthew Foss, went down early in the game with an ankle injury. The score at the intermission had Hudson up 33-23.
Hastings came out for the second half looking like a completely different team. Head Coach Chad Feikema went to the locker room with a plan to move guys around to fill the void of losing Foss and the plan worked. The Raiders scored 47 points in the second half and held Hudson to 30 to earn the comeback win 70-63.
Marlowe Strain led the Raiders with 18 points and six rebounds, while Brady Hendrickson stepped up big going 4-for-4 from three-point range enroute to 14 total points. Lukas Foss scored 11 points and grabbed six rebounds, Kyan Esterby scored eight and Weston Schult recorded seven to round out the top five scorers.
At North St. Paul
The boys took a trip up Highway 61 to North St. Paul after their first practice without Matthew Foss on the floor, and four Raiders scored double digit points to help propel them over the Polars. The game almost flipped the script of the Hudson game. Hastings took the early 47-31 lead to the locker room at the intermission and North clawed their way back in the second half while holding Hastings to 23 points. The Raiders held on just long enough to win 70-68.
Hendrickson led the way with 21 points, Schult scored 15 with seven rebounds, Strain and Lukas Foss each had 11 points and Esterby logged six.
At Park of Cottage Grove
The Saturday matinee trip north was Hastings’ most consistent game of the season. The start of the game had the teams’ swapping leads for a good portion of the first half. As the clock ticked time away, Hastings began to pull away eventually leading 43-35 at the intermission.
This game was full of gritty points on both sides of the court and eventually Park was able to come back and tie the game at 49. This cycle happened a few times, Hastings would get out to an 8–10-point lead, the Wolfpack would claw back to a tie or within one point and Hastings again pulled away. The game itself was very entertaining with both teams making fun to witness shots and athletic steals, ultimately, Hastings pulled away at the end to win 78-67.
Schult and Strain led the Raiders with 17 points, Strain led rebounds with six. Carter Lundstrom had his best varsity points game with 12 and Hendrickson and Lukas Foss each scored 11.
“I think one of the things that we have in our favor is the balance and the depth,” said Feikema. “Carter Lindstrom had a couple of big shots in the first half. Marlowe played 36 minutes tonight, and he does a lot of the tough things, but also shoots and scores as well. Lukas was able to get things going inside a little bit. I think one of the things we've been trying to do in the last couple of games is feed him and get his confidence and momentum going. He was such a force for us early in the year and it is a long season, he had a little bit of a rough couple of months here and there, so we were able to get him going again which is really helpful. Brady Hendrickson has really stepped up the last couple of games even before Matthew got hurt, but especially this week, he does not miss much.”
Losing a top scoring player to an injury can be devastating to an offense in the short term and the Raiders did not miss a beat. It is as though they looked at Matthew, and said ‘get some rest, get healthy, we’ve got you.’ And they went out and did what they needed to do to win.
“Brady was a big part of that. He scored double figures in all three games this week without Matt, but again, Marlowe, Carter, Kyan and Weston scores, Lucas scores, pretty much anybody that we put in the game is capable of making shots,” added Feikema.
A big piece of that depth comes from Coach Feikema, he has instilled that understanding of needing to go out and fight for points, to fight for a win and to do it together, and the boys have bought into that winning and losing as a team mentality.
“It’s a learned behavior on their part,” said Feikema. “Our four seniors went through two of the toughest years we have had in the 16 years I have been here which was their freshman and sophomore year. We did not have a lot of depth in the older kids so the younger kids had to play early, which put them into situations they had to play for. They really did not have a choice and to their credit, they did not get beaten down by those situations.”
The senior leadership has been through a lot, in the 21-22 season, they finished with a record of 5-22, the 22-23 season was only slightly better at 7-20. 23-24 they finally hit a winning record at 14-13 and now, so far in 24-25, they are 18-4 overall with a 10-2 Metro East Conference record. They trail Tartan who is 13-0 in the conference, who gave the Raiders one of their four losses back on Jan. 17, a 73-71 Raiders loss.
The boys have just three games left in the regular season, Feb. 20 against South St. Paul, Feb. 25 against St. Thomas Academy, both at home and they finish on the road at Mahtomedi on Feb. 28. All games are scheduled for 6:30 p.m. starts. The section playoffs start on Mar. 4 at 7:00 p.m. at the high seed, so Hastings should have a home playoff game.
A look ahead at the section tournament. Hastings is currently third in the section behind Apple Valley and Eagan. Apple Valley is ranked 13 in AAAA, Eagan is 17 and Hastings is 24. Hastings could see the second seed if they win out, but that will still be a tough argument given how most of the section teams are also part of the same conference that does not include Hastings or Park. There is no reason to put Park, the current fourth place team or Rosemount, the fifth-place team ahead of Hastings, so if Hastings is seeded lower than third, there is something fishy going on. The Raiders could finish the season with the best record in the section, but the section does not always look at that, especially since Apple Valley and Eagan have both had tougher schedules in the eyes of the section coaches.