Raiders play their best game of the year to earn win over the Sexton Big Reds

The Portland Boys Basketball team showed some of its potential tonight, ending an eight-game losing skid, by defeating the Sexton Big Reds 71-58.

Sexton got off to a fast start and led the Raiders 21-11 at the end of the first quarter. Then the Raiders brought their game and scored 27 second quarter points, led by Owen Russell with 11. Portland connected on 8 out of 8 from the free throw line in the second quarter and led 38-29 at the half.

The second-half was more evenly matched. The Raiders led 54-42 at the end of the third quarter and then outscored Sexton 17-16 in the fourth quarter.

Coach Dave Pettit commented after the game, “We took care of the basketball much better this game. Owen Russell got hot and scored 27 points tonight. Jordan Petersen came off the bench played his best game of the year. He handled the ball well and scored 16 points. Blake Meyers and Tate played their usual hustle game on both ends and Mitch Savage did a nice job controlling the middle of our zone even though he didn’t score a point. The kids played to each of their strengths. Aryan attacked the rim in the first half and scored 9 of his 11 in the first half.”

Owen Russell led all scorers in the game with 27 points. Jordan Peterson had 16 and Aryan Virk contributed 11 for Portland. Emmanuel Jones and Rasheed Greenwood scored 19 and 14 respectively for Sexton.

The Raiders improved to 3-10 for the season, and are in action again on Wednesday, Feb. 6th at Fowler.