Raiders pushing for District championship; Lady Raiders have a tough season

The Rice Raiders and Lady Raiders both had eventful weeks this past week and learned a lot about themselves in the process.

It may have been a tough week, but both these teams are resilient and will come back stronger.

Lady Raiders

Alright let’s get it out the way off the hop, the Lady Raiders officially won only one game this season after they lost their final two games to Columbus and Tidehaven.

Great, now that we are past that let’s take a look at some of the positives from the Lady Raiders season. It no secret that the Lady Raiders had a lot of underclassmen on their roster and their head coached confirmed they were playing junior varsity last season.

It’s a tough gap to fill for any team, not just the Lady Raiders. But these young ladies met the challenge head on.

It was ugly at times and the score got away from them in some games, there is no denying that. They still showed up every day with big smiles on their faces, excited to play and learn the game of basketball.

They learned a ton this season too, just watching Jordyn and Diamond Fuller this season they made huge developmental steps as basketball players. They ended up becoming a formidable duo in the paint for the Lady Raiders both rebounding and scoring late int he seasons.

Aleh Conejo, she started to become a reliable shooting guard and passer as the season moved along and Lia Beccera improved so much defensively, and it was such a good sign to see for this team moving into next year.

Yes, they only won one game this season, but his team is so much more than what their record shows and they will be back next season with a vengeance.

Raiders

This comes as no surprise to fans of the team, but the Raiders are in a position to try and win a district championship this year.

They are a talented group but can get a little too one dimensional on offense and can be a little lazy on defense. Both of those things cost them the game against the Columbus Cardinals.

This loss stings because it’s a rivalry but it also helped the Cardinals leapfrog the Raiders in the district standings. But this team is very resilient and came back the next game and just unloaded on Tidehaven.

After losing to Columbus 85-67 the Raiders bounced back with a massive, 60-39 win over Tidehaven. The win over Tidehaven was a big one because the Raiders are now tied with Columbus for the top spot in the district.

Both the Raiders and the Cardinals have a win over each other this season so if things stayed tied round three between the two schools could be on the horizon.