The Unalaska Raiders basketball team played two charged home games against Dillingham this weekend. Unalaska City School principal Jim Wilson says both teams played with lots of energy, defensively and offensively.

“They were close games, hard-fought games, hotly contested games, and you know, both teams just really did a great job of playing hard and I think both teams got better over the course of the weekend.”

The Raiders lost 41-49 on Friday night, but came back on Saturday with a 67-63 victory over Dillingham.

Community members packed the bleachers for the second weekend in a row to watch the games. Wilson estimates that there were at least 400 people in attendance.

“It was a great crowd, there wasn’t [sic] too many empty seats in the entire crowd, and I know the basketball teams really appreciate the community support and the energy that brings to the game.”

Meanwhile, the Lady Raiders played in Dillingham this weekend. Wilson says they played hard, but lost both games.

“I talked to Coach [Kevin] Ley this morning. He was really happy with how the girls played overall. On Friday, they lost 58-21 and then on Saturday they lost 69-30, but he thought that they really got better over the course of the weekend.”

The games leave the Unalaska boys 1-1 for conference seeding, and the girls 0-2. This weekend the teams will travel to play against Lumen Christi, followed by the Donlin Gold tournament against Bethel, Nome and Seward. Their next home games will be February 1 and 2 against Service High School.