Raiders score season’s first win

BY HEIDI ZENEFSKI
Sports Correspondent

The Blue Ridge Raiders brought home their first win of the season Friday night with a 55-53 nail-biting victory over Mountain View.

The Raiders got off to a strong start, taking an early lead and outscoring the Eagles by 10 points in the first quarter. Austin Darrow led Blue Ridge with eight points, including a slam dunk that drew loud appreciation from the Raiders’ faithful. He also dominated under the basket with four rebounds and grabbed a steal. Mike Allen added a 3-pointer and two foul shots, Ty Herbert four points; Austin Cardoza and Jeff Morris each earned a bucket.

For the Eagles Chris White scored five points, Deon Faramelli scored four, and Ryan Lavin had two points to end the quarter with a score of 21-11 in favor of the Raiders.

The Eagles fought hard in the second quarter with White scoring 13, five of which were foul shots and Faramelli adding in six. Ryan Lavin and Matt Lavin scored two and one foul shots, respectively.

The Raiders were able to score 10 points. Darrow put up four, and teammates Cardoza, Herbert, and Kyle Donovan each added a basket. With two minutes left in the quarter, an ankle injury took Donovan out for the remainder of the

game.

Cody Hollister got the go-ahead goal for the Eagles who went into half time with a 35-31 lead over the Raiders.

There were four lead changes in the third quarter. Cardoza got the first go-ahead of the quarter for Blue Ridge. After putting up a basket, he got the steal from White and sank another. White then got the lead back for the Eagles with a basket.

Darrow took control under the basket for the Roaders with four rebounds and three blocked shots; scored the next go-ahead basket for Blue Ridge, but the lead was short lived with Eagle Ryan Lavin hitting the first of his two 3-pointers in the quarter to take the lead back for Mountain View.

The Eagles were up by one at the start of the fourth quarter, 45-44. The final eight minutes were halted by timeouts; and the back-and-forth action saw five more lead changes as the players scrambled for every point and advantage they could get.

With the clock running down, Mountain View had a one-point advantage but the Raiders had control of the ball as Jarred Mills drove toward the basket. An Eagle foul sent Mills to the line for two. The first shot tied the game; and the second put Blue Ridge in the lead.

With less than six seconds left in the game, Mills scrambled for a rebound after a missed shot at the other end of the court. He grabbed it and held on as an Eagle grabbed on as well with the jump ball going in favor of the Raiders.

At this point, the Eagles had to foul to stop the clock. This sent Allen to the line and he made the second of the two foul shots to give the Raiders a two point lead.

With the clock running down, the pass down the court by White went out of bounds, and the Raiders claimed the hard-fought 55-53 win.

After the game, Mills said, “It feels awesome! It’s our first win this season, so far. Hopefully, there are many more to come after this.”

White was the high scorer for Mountain View with 26 points, followed by Faramelli and Ryan Lavin with 12 points each.

Blue Ridge’s high scorer was Darrow with 18 points followed by Allen with 14.

In other basketball action last week:
Noah Fedak scored 17 points to lead the Foresters to a 68-21 win over Mountain View Tuesday (Jan. 13) in a Division IV home game.

Adam Kowalewski added 15 points for the winners.

Chris White scored 13 points for Mountain View.

Elk Lake took a 54-34 victory on the Sabers’ court.

Bailey Newhart scored 15 points to lead Elk Lake.

Hunter Watkins added 12 points for the Warriors.

Tyler Williams led Susquehanna with 10 points.

At Montrose, No. 9 Dunmore beat the Meteors 57-44 in a Division III-IV crossover win.

Austin Smith scored 12 points for No. 10 Montrose and Jack Fruehan had 11.

Austin Darrow had 26 points for Blue Ridge in a 54-46 loss to Lackawanna Trail. Raider Jeffrey Morris hit two 3-pointers.