Vikings Work Hard for Victory over Raiders in Boys Basketball

Eleventh-ranked Haslett visited Portland tonight and came away with a victory to boost their overall record to 7-3. But it wasn’t as easy as they might have expected from the 2-8 Raiders who played aggressively for the entire game before losing 58-32. A 20 to 2 run late in the game by Haslett made the final score seem like a more lopsided affair than it was. “The final score did not indicate the game. We played hard and the effort from our guys was there”, Coach Dave Pettit shared with the Beacon in a post-game interview.

The Raiders who are currently down to nine varsity players were not intimidated by the much bigger, faster Haslett team as indicated by their hard, scrappy play all night. At the end of the second quarter the Raiders tenacious rebounding, especially by Tate Dziewiatkowski, found them trailing only 29-23 before a last second three-point shot fell through the net for the Vikings to make it 32-23 at the Half.

The third quarter ended 43-30 with Haslett building on its lead. It was the fourth quarter that saw the Raider scoring limited to one Owen Russell basket, while Haslett drop through 15 points. Russell led all Portland scoring for the game with 15 points while Aryan Virk chipped in 7, with Zach Pier and Gavin McGregor adding 5 each. Mitchell Mowid led Haslett with 14 points, followed by Ty Andrades with 13 and Sam Laczynski with 11.

Coach Pettit declared, “Everyone contributed tonight. We were undersized but not out hustled”. Portland’s tallest player, Junior David Svanda who is 6’4”, continues to be out with an injury. Coach Pettit looking on the positive side, made a special point to note that “Blake Meyers did a nice job at point guard tonight”.

Portland is in action again on Friday night when they host the Charlotte Orioles at 6 PM. This is the first meeting of the two teams since last year’s District Tournament game that Charlotte won 67-65 on a last second buzzer beating shot.