Raiders build big lead, hang on down the stretch 69-64 over the Dutchmen
Dierks scores 1000th Career Point and a Triple-Double On a special night for Justin Dierks that including scoring his 1,000th career point early in the second half. He capped it off by making a few free throws down the stretch to secure the win for the Raiders 69-64. Dierks not only scored his 1,000th point of the game, but also notched his 2nd triple double of the season with 26 points, 11 rebounds, and 13 assists on the night.
Starting right out of the gates hitting shots and playing excellent defense, the Raider boys got a lead early and never relinquished the lead the entire night. The only lead the Dutchmen had the entire night was when they scored on the opening possession of the game to go up 2-0. Leighton Gehl hit a 3 pointer on the next possession to go ahead and scored the next 11 points to go up 11-2. The Raiders built as much as a 15 point lead in the first half before Edgerton made a nice run to close the half and get the score to 32-25 at the half. Matthias Kunerth had a nice shooting first half scoring 10 of his 14 points in the first half. Brandon Everett and Leighton Gehl both hit 2 three pointers in the first half for 6 points, and Dierks had 9 of his game high 26 points in the half to go along with 7 rebounds and 6 assists.
The second half started much like the first half in which Edgerton scored the first basket to close to 5 before Fulda again went on a nice run to build a double digit lead back up there. Along the way Justin Dierks hit a 3 pointer only a few minutes into the half, making him just the 5th boy in Fulda Raiders history to score 1,000 career points. Dierks joins Arvid Kramer 1189, Brad Carroll 1149, Matt Appel 1080, and Mark Olson 1009 as 1000 point scorers.
After reaching this milestone the Raiders could now focus on the game itself, and that is what they did building as much as an 18 point lead with 8 minutes remaining. Edgerton began scrambling, picking up their defensive intensity, and knocking down shots to narrow the gap to as low as 4 points in the last minute before Fulda made a few free throws and got a few stops down the stretch to hang on for a 69-64 win over Edgerton.
Justin Dierks finished his special night off with a triple double scoring 26 points, grabbing 11 rebounds, and dishing out 13 assists on the night. Kunerth 14 and Leighton Gehl also hit double figures with 10. Ben White was a machine again on the boards collecting 10 rebounds for the 2nd straight game. Dalton Slinger had a nice 2nd half with all 8 of his points coming after intermission.
With the win, the Raiders move to 7-6 on the season, and will continue play Tuesday at home vs. St. James as former Fulda grad Alex Hein will bring his Saints into his old gym as the head coach of the St. James squad.
State ranked and undefeated RRC too much for Raider boys
Heading to Lamberton to take on state ranked and undefeated Red Rock Central on Thursday night was the task of the undersized but excited Fulda boys team. Although both teams played fairly even throughout the first 9 minutes, a late first half run of 17-0 by the Falcons put the game out of reach for the 6-6 Raider squad as they beat Fulda 66-41.
Playing good defense on RRC’s 6’5 big man Trevor Pederson was a focal point of Fulda’s game plan if it were going to stay with the Falcons and play good defense is what they did the first nine minutes. The only problem was RRC’s defense was just a little bit better, and shots were not falling on the other end as Fulda struggled all night to put the ball in the basket and take care of the ball. With nine minutes gone by in the first half, Fulda trailed 13-9 and held Pederson scoreless, but as shots continued not falling late in the first half, RRC shooters starting hitting a few open looks and they went on a 17-0 run over a 5 minute stretch to extend their lead before heading into the locker room leading 39-18. Holding their 2 leading scorers on the season to 2 points and 1 point respectively in the first half were awesome, we just were not able to capitalize on the other end of the floor to keep pressure on them.
The second half was pretty much played even as Fulda was never able to get it closer than 15 points and RRC build as much as a 27 point lead before finally closing out the game with a 66-41 win to move their record on the season to 13-0. They are a nice squad with a good balance of size and quickness and shooters, so they are a very tough matchup for anyone. Our post players did a tremendous job on Pederson who ended the game with only 8 points, but in trying to stop him led to some easy open looks for other players and they were able to connect to the tune of shooting 45% on the game while we were only 15-41 shooting and had 28 turnovers on the game.
Justin Dierks and Dalton Slinger led the scoring with 7 points while Leighton Gehl had 6. Matthias Kunerth 5, Aron Hulstein 5, Jarred Jans 3, Christian Goedtke, Noah Salentiny, and Ben White rounded out the scoring with 2 each. Ben White had a nice night onn the boards with 10 rebounds and Justin Dierks continued his streak of fantastic passing with 7 assists on the night. With the loss the Raiders evened their record at 6-7 for the season.
