By Bruce Karnick

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After a short, two-game losing streak at the end of January, the Raiders girls basketball team has won four of their last five including the most recent three. Feb. 8, they made the trip to North St. Paul to take on the Polars.

Hastings had a 16-point lead heading into halftime, 40-24, a product of keeping the Polars reeling by mixing up the pressure. The Raiders extended their lead in the second half and won 86-61.

Lilly Nuytten was one of three Raiders to score double digits. Nuytten scored 34 which alone is impressive. She also had 13 rebounds, three assists and two each, blocks, steals and deflections. Maggie Schlottman joined Nuytten with 13 points and seven rebounds, and Keagen McVicker joined in with 18 points and nine rebounds. Hailey Strain nabbed 10 rebounds as well.

Then the Raiders played host to Two Rivers and won again in dominating fashion. The game started out much closer than Hastings would have liked with the lead only being five at the intermission. The Raiders poured it on in the second half and won 71-50.

The story was turnovers. This time it was a good story with, Hastings only committing 16 the entire game while they committed larceny on the Warriors to the tune of 28 takeaways. Nuytten led the scoring again, this time with 22 points. McVicker had 14 and several players were close to the 10-point mark. Emma Bakker had an impressive night all around. Bakker scored nine, had five rebounds, five assists, four steals and seven deflections.

Hastings finishes the regular season with four very good opportunities to finish the season on a high note. Based on previous matchups, Hastings could sweep South St. Paul on Feb.16. At Mahtomedi on Feb. 18 and at Hill-Murray on Feb. 22 look to be the toughest games left, and the rematch against Simley could be interesting to end the season on Feb. 25. All four games are 7 p.m. tips, and then the Raiders look to the postseason.