By Robb Fenton

It’s always nice to beat a rival and the Holy Rosary Raiders girl’s basketball team can say they did that in the first meeting this season.
The Raiders hosted the Lloyd Comp Barons Tuesday night and despite a slow start, the final score, 46-36, ended up in the Raiders’ favour.
“It feels good coming up with the win, first game at home especially. The girls played well, both teams played well and both had our opportunities,” Raiders head coach Eric Hilstrom said. “It’s the start of the year, so I imagine it will be a good rivalry all season.”
Down 10-8 after the first in a bit of a slow quarter, the Raiders turned it on in the second, grabbed a 13-12 lead and stretched it to as many as nine later in the quarter and it was thanks to the Raiders’ improved intensity.
“We pressured the ball, we pressured a lot and the girls did a nice job of coming back and playing their defence and our shooters got hot and started sinking some shots,” Hilstrom said.
Neither team has played a tonne of basketball, but the Raiders have been on the court a little more than the Barons, who were in their first real game of the season after some training sessions and an exhibition game last week.
All that being said, the Barons were disappointed with the loss, but know it is early in the year.
“It’s not the results we wanted, but for our first game I’m pretty happy. A lot of our shots went in and out, in and out and that kind of made the difference of 10 points and we were missing two starters that could have made the difference,” Barons head coach Melissa Bielesch said. “We have some really good girls step up off the bench and I was really happy with the way the girls played.”
The start, although not perfect, was nice to see for the Barons.
“It was a nice way to start it, but our shots weren’t falling. We had all the right plays, but maybe our offence needs to click and we need to play a bit harder defensively,” Bielesch said. “We need to work harder on the boards, but for the first real game out, I am okay with it.”
In the third quarter, the Barons cut into the lead, but once again, the Raiders stepped up and stretched their cushion to 11 points.
Up 12 with under a minute to go, the Barons continued to show heart and push and cut the lead to 10, but that was as close as they would get, as the Raiders walked away with round one of the Border City battle, winning 46-36.
While the loss is tough because it comes against their rivals, Bielesch and the Barons know they have a lot of positives to work on and will be in good shape once they tighten things up.
“We’re going to focus on running our offence, we didn’t do that too much, they kind of panicked a little bit. We need to get the ball up the court faster,” Bielesch explained. “Once that comes, if we can run the ball faster up the court, I think it will make a big difference for this team.”
Closing out 2009 with a win against your crosstown rivals is a great way to head into Christmas, but Hilstrom knows it will be another battle when they meet next.
“We’re done now until Jan. 8 and 9, but it’s always a good feeling beating the Comp, but we have to be ready for the next time we play them” Hilstrom said.