Eventually the Lady Gulls would pull off a 52-39 victory, but it was not until the second half and a change to their defense did the game start to open up for the 11-1 Gulls.
Coming off their first season loss handed to them by Ilwaco, 74-57, the Lady Gulls came out with a fever to keep the top spot in the 2B Pacific League.
It would be a traveling game for the visiting Eagles, and not the trip in their mini bus that brought them. With Raymond providing the first two turnovers of the game on traveling calls, the Eagles committed four turnovers in a row with the same violation. And by the time the final buzzer sounded, the Eagles would be called an estimated 10 times carrying the ball.
"We are a young team, I had to pull up a couple of underclassmen to fill out the team," said head Eagle coach Chris Chapman.
Despite being a young team, the Eagles took the initial lead by scoring the first bucket and kept on the heels of the Lady Gulls deadlocked at 34 at the end of the third period.
Leading the Eagles in their fight against the home Seagulls, seniors Tayler Boles and Katie Anderson both brought in eight points with freshmen Madison Boles at seven and Courtney Youngblood with six.
It would be the drive of Raymond's Karlee Freeman at 15-points and the under-the-basket work from Aiysha Garcia, 12-points, that would bring in the bulk of the scoring for the Seagulls.
"We did change to a zone in the second half and were able to get some fast-break points out of that," said Raymond head coach Jon Schray.
Raymond drew the first foul of the game allowing the Eagles the advantage to score first. It would the foul line that made the biggest impression of the game as Raymond scored 14 of their final 18 points from the top of the key with the Lady Eagles trying desperately to try and turn the game around as it started to slip away.
"We just need to work on our fundamentals," said Coach Chapman, "We are learning and we will be right back at it."
The Lady Seagulls kept Life Christian Academy from score through the first four minutes of the final period and stalled them to only three points through the final buzzer. Two Raymond players went 100% from the foul line in that period Mikayla Collins and Cydney Flemetis.
Contributing for the Seagulls, freshman Malenna Williams worked in the game periodically, was able to pick up the slack at the guard position when Raymond players had to spend additional pine-time because of foul trouble.
Like the Friday night game, the next two home games will have a start time of 6:30 pm, based on the lack of junior varsity competition.
Raymond will be at home against Chief Leschi on Jan. 16 and will make the trip to Willapa Valley for a 7 pm game on Jan. 22.