Photo by Ari Selvey: Martin County West’s Chase Owens (23) looks for space to drive during a Valley Division boys basketball game against Nicollet Thursday at Nicollet High School.

NICOLLET — Martin County West struggled to handle one of the Valley Division’s frontrunners on Thursday, falling 85-35 in a Valley boys basketball game.

The Raiders were especially dominant on the offensive glass, seemingly getting two or three chances every time down the court.

Carson Kettner led the Raiders with 21 points and nine rebounds, while Henry Oscarson had 15 points. Abe Madsen scored 15 points, and Henry Kennedy had 13 points and 16 rebounds.

Chase Owens had 8 points for the Mavericks.

With the win, the Raiders improve to 12-3 overall and 8-1 in the conference. Nicollet controls its own destiny to the Tomahawk-Valley Conference Championship game, with a couple of big conference games coming up soon.

Nicollet’s Keegan Hulke left the game with an ankle injury in the first half.

MCW falls to 1-15 overall and 1-7 in the conference.

The Raiders started off the game with a bang as Kennedy threw an alley-oop dunk to Kettner for a 6-2 lead. MCW answered with a layup from Owens, but a pair of putbacks from Kettner forced an MCW timeout as the Raiders held a 12-4 lead. Kettner dished an alley-oop of his own as Madson finished with a layup, and an and-one by Kettner saw the Raiders with a 21-8 lead.

MCW’s Lixon Forsberg hit a 3-pointer to make it a 26-11 game, but Nicollet continued to push, going on a 13-2 run, with Toby Oscarson, Henry Oscarson, Madson, Kennedy, Kettner and AJ Kramer all getting in on the scoring action for a 39-13 lead. Madson added one more 3-pointer before the halftime buzzer as the Raiders led 44-15.

Things continued to look the same in the second half, with Kennedy opening the half with another alley-oop to Kettner, who laid it in for a 46-15 lead. The game entered running time at the 10-minute mark, and Nicollet’s Jacob Volby scored two layups in transition to close out the game.