North’s Boys Varsity Raiders narrowly beat the Horizon Christian Academy Warriors 73-69 last Saturday night. This win led the Raiders to the semifinals of the tournament.

Raider Arena was packed with students and family supporting their fellow Raiders, especially over break. The crowd was hyping up the team, and calling out chants to encourage them.

The first quarter went well for the Raiders, but following a nice set of layups, Horizon’s number two scored a beautiful three-pointer. After the first timeout of the game, the Raiders were luckily able to keep their lead by the end of the period, with the final score being 17-15.

In the second quarter, the Raiders increased their lead to eight points. Notably, senior Ty Womack saved a basket and ran it down the court to score a two-pointer for the Raiders.

By half-time, the Raiders were jumping head-first into the rest of the game, leading 32-26.

As the second quarter began, the Raiders hoped to build their lead back up. With six minutes left of the third quarter, number three, Jacob Costello, scored. By the end of the quarter, the score was 54-31, still in favor of the Raiders.

At the end of the game, the Warriors pushed hard, but the Raiders persevered. They played excellent defense against some persistent points. After persisting for the majority of the game, North managed to end the game with a close score of 73-69.

So far, the Raiders have had a great start to the season, having won 2 and lost 1. This was the first game of the tournament and the next one will be in late December but the next game for North is a home game against Chattahoochee High School on Saturday, Nov 30. The game will provide an excellent opportunity to challenge the Raiders!