The Midway Raiders split in their conference match ups against the East Duplin Panthers Saturday, with the girls taking the win, 49-46, and the boys claiming a loss, 50-38.
Girls
Someone had to lose their first game of the season Saturday night, in the girls’ match between the Midway Raiders and East Duplin Lady Panthers. The Lady Raiders proved tough, claiming the three-point victory over the Panthers.
It might not have been the best game for the Raiders, but the strong defense and free-throw shots were the key factors in the them squeezing out the win. Offensively, the Raiders only shot 35 percent and 25 percent in three-point shots, but an impressive 64 percent from the line.
Turnovers may have been a detriment for the Lady Raiders, having 16 in the game, but being able to recover 32 rebounds, both offensively and defensively, helped secure the win.
Leah Williams and J.J. Sankey both fouled out, accumulating 10 of the 21 total personal fouls for the away team. Despite fouling out, Williams was still the leading scorer, finishing the game with 16 points. Alyssa Wrench helped with her 10.
With the win, the Lady Raiders go to 14-0 overall and 4-0 in the conference. They have three back to back games coming up, the first being Wednesday when they rematch Clinton at home.
Boys
The Raider men weren’t as lucky in their encounter with the East Duplin boys, taking a 12-point loss and keeping the struggle for the season continuing.
Going into halftime, the Raiders held the lead, thanks to both the offense and the defense. At the end of the first quarter, the Raiders had a four-point lead, holding the Panthers to only six.
The offense kept that same pace into the second quarter, repeating their first quarter’s performance and going for another 10 points. However, the defense didn’t match the intensity from the previous quarter. They allowed twice the amount of points by the home team, which went for 12. At the half, Midway held the advantage, 20-18.
It was all down hill for them in the second half, especially in the third quarter where everything went wrong on both ends of the floor. Having no offensive flow, the Raiders only managed to get five points during the third, which turned out to be the turning point of the game, as East Duplin scored 17.
Though they picked it up in the fourth the boys were in too big a hole to mount a comeback. Dropping 13 they were still outscored by two with the Panthers getting 15 to secure the win.
With another loss they’re now 5-8 on the season while being without a win in the conference at 0-4. They’ll have a chance to change that on Wednesday when they host the Dark Horses in their rematch.
