The Hastings Raiders boys basketball team had its season end in the first round of the Section 3AAAA playoffs Wednesday night with a 78-29 loss to the top-seeded Eastview Lightning.
The No. 8-seeded Raiders trailed 38-17 at halftime and then were outscored 40-12 in the second half. The Lightning are ranked No. 7 in Class AAAA and went 19-6 during the regular season.
Sophomore Owen Bernatz led Hastings in scoring with nine points while senior Will Hubbard added seven and fellow senior Axel Arnold contributed six. Junior Kelvin Maher scored three points and the combo of sophomore Kellen Nuytten/senior Jonathon Watson each had two points.
Hastings finishes a disappointing season where it went 5-22 overall, 5-21 in the regular season and 4-12 in the Metro East Conference, which was good for seventh out of nine teams.
The Raiders will graduate eight seniors come spring: Hubbard, Arnold, Watson, Michael Mitchell, Ty Krick, Luke Austin, Brock Mosher and Max Savage. However, they are set to return three of their top scorers next season in Bernatz, Nuytten and Maher.
Eastview faces No. 4 Rosemount Saturday on the top half of the bracket while on the bottom half, No. 2 Park of Cottage Grove and No. 3 Bloomington Jefferson face off. The section championship game is Thursday, March 17, at the high seed.
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