Aaron Allendorph 
The Colonie Raiders get past the Colombia Devils in a 59-51 victory at Shenendehowa High school. Raiders’ Junior, Jayla Tyler had 15 points which helped in a big way to put the devils away.
After the first two minutes of the game, the raiders jumped to a 7-1 lead which startled Colombia momentarily. However, the Devils go on a run of their own led by freshman, Kendyl Ouimette who had 10 points alone in the first quarter. By the end of this back and forth match in the first quarter, Colombia was only down by one to keep Colonie on their toes.
Colonie seized control of the second quarter by taking advantage of turnovers and executing from deep. Bella Franchi and Tyler combined for 12 points in the 2nd quarter to give Colonie some breathing room heading into the half with the score of 34-21.
At the halfway point of the third, hope for the Colombia Devils was starting to fade at the sight of a 40-25 Raiders’ lead. Devils’ forward, Leah Phillips scored nine points in the quarter to close the gap 51-36 heading into the fourth.
Colombia’s effort doesn’t stop there as they were only down by eight under four minutes to play.
The Raiders managed to hang on despite turning the ball over a couple of times. Lucky for them, Colombia came up empty for some of the turnovers they generated late in the game.
Tyler and the Raiders will have a date with Jill Huerter and the Shenendehowa Plainsmen on March 3rd at HVCC. As the Raiders will battle the first seeded plainsmen to advance to the Finals.
Kyle Milligan 
Cooper Priamo 
Russell Phoenix