Raiders hold off Redskins in opener

KANSAS - It was all on Colten Kelbey's shoulders with 6.5 seconds left in the game.The ball bounced out on the rim on the first shot. He made the second, putting Lakota just three points ahead of Arcadia.Issac Stoner tried a one last Hail Mary on a 3-pointer, but it bounced off the rim and into the hands of Kelbey to end any chance of a tie.Lakota defeated Arcadia in the season opener 53-50 Friday in non-conference action."First and foremost, we got the win, which was the most important thing," Raiders coach Adam Gnepper said. Was it a perfect win? No it wasn't. As a matter of fact, the Raiders (1-0) battled with the Redskins (0-1) down to the wire. Foul trouble haunted both teams, as Arcadia ended the night with 21, and Lakota had 16 fouls, and the majority of those fouls for both teams were in the first half."Arcadia is a great team with a lot of returners, and it's a good team that kept battling," Gnepper said. "My biggest takeaway from tonight is that our guys played a tight game, a tight contested physical game and came out with the victory. The team will learn from it and grow with it. We also know that we have to make some better decisions at times."The battle started at the beginning of the game, where Arcadia took the lead. Right off the gate, Lakota had a foul, and Issac Stoner went to the charity strip where he split a pair, making it 1-0. Then Blayse Beard came out with a bucket with 5:50 on the clock. From there, the teams traded baskets until Stoner hit a 3-pointer putting the Redskins slightly ahead. It wasn't meant to stay that way. After a trade of two ties, Lakota pulled ahead when the Redskins fouled with 2:11 on the clock, which put Nick Elchert at the line after scoring two points. He sunk the plus one, and about a minute, put another bucket in. The quarter ended on an Elchert basket and made it 16-9.From there, Lakota and Arcadia exchanged points until the game was tied at 22 overall with 55 seconds left on the clock, and it remained that way until there was three seconds left.The Redskins fouled Ruger Kelbley as he was shooting a 3-point shot. He earned a trip to the line, and it was nothing but net for all three. By halftime, Lakota held onto the lead 25-22.In the third quarter, the Redskins added 19 points on the boards while the Raiders only added 16. The Raiders went on small runs throughout the quarter, trying to put Arcadia in the rearview mirror, but Grady Bronston, song with stoner, kept coming back.The biggest gap was with 4:21 remaining in that quarter, when the score was 38-29. A 3-point shot from Stoner, and a foul shot for Bronston closed the gap to 38-33. Lakota answered back with Kelbley swishing a basket, but Bronston hollered back with a bucket.With 37.5 seconds on the clock, Ruger Kelbley sank a bucket and Bronston responded back with a 3-pointer. Colton Kelbey had the last say as he netted a bucket with 19 seconds left, bringing it to 44-38Most of the fourth quarter had just a four point difference between the two teams, until Beard hit the first slam dunk of the season to a thunderous crowd. It was 52-46 with 4:25 in the game.King is described as an incredible athlete. He is the go to man for Lakota. He had 13 points for the Raiders, and six rebounds. "If anything, we didn't give him the ball enough," said Gnepper about Beard. "Arcadia did a really good job at scheming their way at trying to take him away. We didn't give him enough touches. But he will get more as the season goes on."As for Colton Kelbley, the junior point guard, he was also at 13 points on the night, as well as having 13 rebounds."He played incredibly for us tonight. He is a three year starter and has experience," Gnepper said. "Down the stretch, when they were pressuring us, and trying to get us to turn it over, he handled the ball and pressure really well." Other leaders for Lakota included Elchert with 10 points, but had 15 rebounds.Heading into the next game, Gnepper knows what they need to work on."We have to take care of the ball better and better handle breaking the press," Gnepper said. "At times, Arcadia hurt us in that, double teams too."