The High School Basketball regular season came to a close over the past weekend and for the senior members of the Raider and Lady Raider teams it was their final game played on the home floor of the Maroon and Gold.

Each team held pregame ceremonies to honor those athletes who have given a great amount of time and effort to represent their school over the past four seasons but the post game celebration was made much more enjoyable by the wins that each team captured in their final home game.

The McCreary Central boys started off with a Friday win over Lexington Dunbar to cap what has most likely been the best regular season in school history. The 22 wins do not set a school record but considering the quality of many of those wins probably puts this season at the top of the list of successful Raider Basketball regular seasons.

The Lady Raiders followed suit on Saturday night as they capped off a tearful evening in which five seniors played their final home game with a wire to wire win over West Jessamine.

The win was much needed by Central as it ended a nine game winless streak and possible revived the confidence level of the Lady Raiders heading into last nights district tournament match up with Monticello.

In the boys contest on Friday there was a little additional pregame activities as senior Aaron Watts was presented with a plaque pronouncing him as a nominee for the McDonald’s All-American Team. Starting in 1977 McDonald’s has sponsored a High School All American basketball team consisting of the best high school players from across the country. The final 24 players play in an East-West All-Star Game after the season is complete.

Watts is one of only 1,300 players nominated nationwide and one of only 31 Kentucky players nominated this season. None of the 31 Kentucky players were chosen to play in the McDonald’s game this season.

Once the contest began it looked as if the Raiders would roll to an easy win over the Bulldogs who had won just their third game of the season the night prior but a hot shooting night that saw them knock down six of ten three point attempts and shoot 53% from the field overall not only kept them in the game but led the visitors to a one point lead at the end of the third quarter.

An energetic scramble after a loose ball in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter led to the officials having to step between players and separate them. During the referees attempt to restore peace Dunbar center Bryce With used a bad choice of words with an official and was saddled with a technical foul. The Raiders used that as a springboard to a 9-0 run that grew into a 17-4 run that pushed the Raiders to a twelve point lead that the Bulldogs could not recover from.

Aaron Watts began the run by hitting the two free throws awarded as a result of the technical foul and then scoring again on a short jumper in the lane at the 7:00 minute mark.

Two minutes later Watts found his way to the top of the key and let go with a three pointer that made the night even more memorable night. Fittingly with a three pointer the Raider senior scored his 3,000th career point briefly stopping the game with 5:01 on the clock for an acknowledgment by the fans who had basically been left in the dark of the approaching milestone by the Raider coaching staff.

Fellow senior Zack Roark followed with a pair of free throws to give McCreary a 62-54 lead before the Bulldogs finally scored their first points of the quarter some 4:37 into the period.

The Raiders would push the lead to as much as twelve points at 70-58 with two minutes to go with Watts hitting three free throws after getting fouled in the act of what could have been his sixth trifecta of the night.

McCreary hit six free throws in the final minute to preserve the win and finished the fourth quarter with a perfect 13 of 13 performance from the line. For the game the Raiders were a blazing 22 of 27 form the line for an 81.5 % mark.

Ironically as well as the Bulldogs shot from the floor it was lack of ability to hit from the line that spelled their doom. Amazingly Dunbar finished only 1 of 9 from the charity stripe with six of the misses coming during the first six minutes of the fourth period while the Raiders made a game clinching 14-4 run.

McCreary built leads of 11-2 and 16-6 in the first quarter and led 34-25 late in the second but the Bulldogs scored the final eight points of the first half to cut the Raider margin down to 34-33 at the half.

The lead changed hands five times in the third quarter until a late three pointer gave Dunbar a 54-53 lead going to the final quarter.

Watts finished off the night with a 28 point effort followed by Roark who pumped in 21. Tyler Perry scored 8, Tyson Williams 6, Jacob Dixon 5, Ben Wright 4 and Sean Privett 4.

For the Lady Raiders Saturday night’s game was exactly what they wanted. The game was just close enough to be competitive for much of the contest with Central able to open the lead up late so the five seniors could get one last round of applause as they left the floor for the last time late in the contest.

Senior guard Holly Stephens got the Lady Raiders off to a hot start as she scored the first eight points of the game on a two pointer and back-to-back threes.

After a free throw to get the Lady Colts on the board senior Bryanna Hodge knocked down a shot from beyond the arc and Stephens scored again giving her a ten point opening quarter and the Lady Raiders a 13-1 lead.

Senior Kayla Morgan added two points to Central’s total as McCreary took a 15-5 lead to the first break.

A Chelsea Smith three pointer and four late points by Stephens helped McCreary build a 26-12 lead before a three pointer in the final minute by West Jessamine cut the halftime lead to 26-15.

A free throw by Smith with 4:39 left in the third gave the Central a 29-15 lead and also started a streak in which the senior guard would score ten of the next twelve Lady Raider points lasting nearly three minutes into the fourth quarter.

McCreary led 33-22 after three quarters and extended the lead to 45-28 with 3:18 left in the game after a 6-0 run.

The Lady Raiders finished the game on a 9-0 run making the 54-31 final margin their largest lead of the game.

Seniors totaled 41 of the Lady Raiders 54 points for the contest with Holly Stephens’ 16 points leading the way. Chelsea Smith followed with 15 while Kayla Morgan added 7 and Bryanna Hodge 3. 8th grader Candance Foster added 10 for Central and Lindsey Vanover scored 3.