Raiders’ Time Has Arrived

When the game was on the line, not one Lomega Raider stepped up.

They all did.

That was exemplified late when Dilon Fisher grabbed a steal and made a pass upcourt to Riley Lumpkin as he was falling out of bounds.

Lumpkin drove to the middle of the lane, drew in the Pittsburg defense and kicked it out to Blake Snowden for a top-of-the-key 3-pointer.

Good.

“That was such a big momentum play for us,” coach Justin Edsall said.

And it stuck.

Lomega got a defensive stop and defeated Pittsburg 52-49 Friday in their Class B area championship at Stroud.

The Raiders’ win put them in the state tournament for the first time since 2012. It’s also the first time Lomega has made the elite eight since Justin Edsall returned to his alma mater the next season to lead the program.

This is Edsall’s first time to reach state as a head coach.

That includes near misses like last year when Lomega lost two games in a row after reaching the area title game.

Setbacks such as 2020 helped inspire the successes of 2021, said Edsall.

“Just being right there the year before was so heartbreaking, but I think it pushed us over that line for this year,” he said.

The Raiders didn’t need two tries this year.

They trailed Pittburg 9-8 after a quarter, but took a 23-18 halftime lead.

Blake Snowden scored five points in the quarter while Noah Snowden and Lumpkin scored four apiece.

Pittsburg was able to tie the game in the third and the teams remained close throughout the fourth, even trading leads.

“When we got down, Riley came up with some huge one-on-one defensive steals that he was able to turn into layups.

Finally, Lomega was able to secure the lead at the foul line, though that wasn’t easy.

The Raiders were 0 for 4 through the first three quarters and only 5 of 11 in the fourth.

However, Blake Snowden stepped up when necessary.

He made 1 of 2 with 23 seconds left for a 4046 Lomega lead.

Pittsburg’s Carter Cross put the pressure back on the Raiders with a 3-pointer with 9.1 seconds remaining to make it a one-point game.

After a timeout, Blake Snowden was fouled and this time sank both foul shots for the three-point lead.

Lomega had fouls to give and eventually forced a long, desperate Pittsburg 3-point attempt that was off the mark.

Blake Snowden led the Raiders with 16 points. He scored nine in the fourth.

Fisher also had a big second half as part of his 14 points. Ten of those came in the final 16 minutes.

Lumpkinscored 12while Noah Snowden scored six and Hector Rivera four.

In Edsall’s first season at Lomega, his team won nine games. The next season, the Raiders were winless.

All the while, he was coaching a group of promising elementary kids.

On Friday, they made history together.

“It’s cool to think about me coaching these juniors and seniors in the third and fourth grades when I first came back here,” he said. “This is a special group and they deserve all their success.”

Fourth-ranked Lomega (22-3) played No. 9 Cyril at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday (after press time) at State Fair Arena in the quarterfinals.

Cyril was responsible for one of those Lomega defeats when itbeat the Raiders 44-42 on Jan. 26.

Class B

State Fair Arena

Tuesday

Game 1: Red Oak vs. Forgan, 6:30 p.m.

Game 2: Varnum vs. Mountain View-Gotebo, 8:30 p.m.

Wednesday

Game 3: Lomega vs. Cyril, 9:30 a.m.

Game 4: Tyrone vs. Roff, 11:30 a.m.

Friday

Winner 1 vs. Winner 2, 9:30 a.m.

Winner 3 vs. Winner 4, 11:30 a.m.

Saturday

Championship, 3 p.m.