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The Hastings boys’ basketball season started December off with the tournament in Red Wing called the Tip-off Classic. Hastings came out of that 1-1 averaging 71 points per game. That changed quickly in a quirky game against the Apple Valley Eagles on Friday, Dec. 9 at home in front of a capacity crowd.

Fans packed the stands for the home opener of Raider boys’ basketball, the band was in attendance, fans were ready, concessions were hopping, everyone showed up, except for two basketball teams. The start of the game was, well, weird. Both teams struggled to score for an extensive length of time. It took a full minute to see the first points on the board, Apple Valley had the 2-0 lead one minute in then two and a half minutes in, the Eagles made it 4-0. By four minutes in, they had an 8-0 lead. Six minutes in, the score remained 8-0 and Apple Valley had missed around 10 threepoint shots.

The shooting percentages were low for the majority of the first half. Hastings did not score for the first seven minutes of the game and after scoring two, it took another minute and two shots at the charity stripe to make it 8-4. Apple Valley then went on a scoring drought of nearly seven minutes as well, but Hastings still trailed 8-7 with 11 minutes expired in the first half.

The shots were simply not falling, it was as if the hoops were replaced with the carnival hoops for the first 15 minutes of the game. That is when the switch was flipped and both teams started making shots. The first half ended with the score Apple Valley 23, Hastings 18.

The second half was a bit better for both teams, especially the Raiders who managed to tie it up a few times. With the score tied and 1.7 seconds left in the game, Owen Bernatz was sent to the line for two. The first shot went up…and rimmed out. His teammates tried to calm him down while building him up and he settled in for shot two… it bounced out and was recovered by Apple Valley. They called timeout with 1.3 seconds left. The inbound pass was intercepted by Kelvin Maher and he leapt to the rim for the layup and it went in as the buzzer sounded.

The crowd erupted and it looked as if Hastings had secured the victory, but the officials waved off the basket saying Maher traveled, so the game went to overtime. Overtime is a four-minute period and the score was tied at 46. The shooting struggles continued. Hastings took the lead 47-46 on a free throw by Bernatz, then Maher dropped in two from the line to go up 49-46. At the end of the extra time, the score was 52-48 Hastings with the win.

Bernatz led the Raiders with 24 points, Lukas Foss and Maher were next on the score sheet with eight points.

The next chance to catch the Raiders in action will be at Park of Cottage Grove on Dec. 15, then at home against Woodbury on Dec. 20. Both tips are scheduled for 7:00 p.m.

Evan Koenigs had several key blocks in the game against Apple Valley. Photo by Bruce Karnick