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The Lady Raiders, after opening the season on Monday with an impressive win over USA, saw even tougher tests on Wednesday and Friday. Warren Woods Tower, ranked No. 8 in Class A, rushed away from Marlette, 60-39, on Wednesday evening. Then, Lakers, a favorite in the GTC West, held on to stop the Lady Raiders, 53-49, on Friday.

"We thought it would be pretty even with Lakers," said veteran Raider coach Fred Mroczek, "but we wanted to just try and keep it close against Tower."

A 22-7 run by Tower in the opening quarter proved to be too much to overcome.

"Their speed and quickness put pressure on us early," Mroczek explained. "After we got use to that speed and quickness factor, we settled in, but the damage was done early.

"They have a big girl inside that's going to Grand Valley and they have five girls that an shoot the three," Mroczek added.

Marlette trailed 38-18 at the half and 51-28 after three quarters.

Senior Kendra Smith led the Marlette scoring with eight points. Jenna Lange and Catherine Distelrath each added seven and Kelsey Hall netted six.

On Friday night, the game was deadlocked, 22-22, at the break. The Lakers, though went up for good, 38-32 in the third quarter.

"We made a few turnovers in the third and fourth quarters and got down by eight, and (Lakers) played well down the stretch," said Mroczek. "We cut the lead to two and had the ball with 10 seconds left but we turned it over." He went on to add, "In the second half we had weary legs out there from playing three games in a week."

Hall had a solid game inside and sophomore guard Amara Wilson played well against Lakers. Hall finished with 14 points, nine rebounds and three assists. Wilson had 11 points, three assists and two steals. Smith chipped in with eight points.

The Lady Raiders next two contests will be GTC crossover games on the road. They are at Reese this Thursday and at Bad Axe on Tues., Dec. 11