By Bruce Karnick

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The Hastings boys basketball team faced North St. Paul on Tuesday and South St. Paul on Friday. Unfortunately, they were not able to break the losing streak at either of those games. At 1-100 overall and 0-4-0 in the conference, the season has been a difficult one to endure for the boys, but they are making the best of it. Watching the action on the court and the guys on the bench, they are still enjoying their time playing the sport they love with their friends.

So far in their 11 games, the boys have been outscored 698-556, that averages out to 63.5 – 50.5 on the season. The game against North St. Paul ended with a 79-50 loss. In that game, Axel Arnold led the Raiders in scoring with 18. Arnold also scored 16 and Jonathon Watson scored 13 in the 8555 loss to South St. Paul.

The boys travel to Mahtomedi on Jan. 19, host Two Rivers on January 21, then host Hill-Murray on Jan. 25.

The girls basketball season has been an exciting one under new head coach Sheri McLeod. The team is playing well despite missing key players throughout the season at random times. This last week they had a bench of nine with girls out for various injuries and illnesses, a testament to not only the available depth of the team, but the team believing in the system and each other.

At home Tuesday against North St. Paul, the Raiders jumped out to an early lead and never let go dominating the Polars. At the half, Hastings was up 40-23, a score that could have been much higher for the Raiders. Hastings did a great job stealing the ball around midcourt, but for some reason, the easy layups were not going in. Rebounds were plentiful for Hastings too, but even those put-backs were not falling.

The second half showed a Raider defense that tightened things up even more. The girls were blocking shots all over the place and stealing the ball left and right, only allowing the Polars to score nine in the second half while the Raiders put up 36. The final: Hast ings won, 76-32. Lilly Nuytten drained a season-high 31 points in the outing, Emma Bakker had 18 and Hailey Strain 11 rounding out the three that had double-digit scoring for Hastings.

Looking to extend their win streak to three, Hastings traveled to South St. Paul on Jan. 14. Strain scored 23 this game, and the Raiders pulled off the 53-50 win, squashing the Packers come-from-behind attempt. Hastings had an 11-point lead heading into the half, 32-21. South St. Paul fought back hard, limiting Hastings to 21 in the second half, but the Raiders held on to win. Nuytten had 10, Natalie Ca- flisch had eight, while Bak ker and Keagan McVicker both had six.

The girls host Mahtomedi Jan. 19 and then travel to Two Rivers on Jan. 21. All the games this week for basketball are at 7 p.m. tips.

Hailey Strain went to the basket against the Polars. Against the Packers days later, she led the team with 23 points. Photo by Bruce Karnick