Rivalry bragging rights will reside in Lone Tree for a year, as the Lion basketball teams completed a season sweep of Hillcrest Academy on Tuesday.

As heard on KCII, the girls’ game was slow going in the first quarter with the game tied at 6-6 after eight minutes. Lone Tree then provided full court pressure to speed the game up and they went on a quick 15-0 run that catapulted them to a 30-11 lead at intermission. The Ravens struggled to get much going in the second half and the Lions took advantage seeing the lead continue to grow en route to a 46-16 win. Lone Tree improved to 8-5 and nine different players scored led by Holley Johnson’s 14. Esther Hughes had nine points for the now 1-11 Ravens.

The boys’ game had a reoccurring cycle of Lone Tree building a three-possession lead only to have the Ravens claw back. That’s what happened for much of the first half and the Lions took a 32-28 lead into half after Keegan Edwards’ second buzzer beating three of the game. After falling behind by double-digits in the third the Ravens had one final push initiated by the interior play of John Hughes, but it fell short in the end with Lone Tree making plays down the stretch for a 62-51 victory. Edwards had a game-high 28 points, as Lone Tree improves to 9-3. Hughes led the 4-6 Ravens with 17 points. Lone Tree head coach Tom Squires tells KCII Sports their full court press was effective at times. “We switched into a 1-2-2 press and we communicated well in it. We had great rotation and caused some turnovers. We want to pressure teams and work fast and we were able to do that.”

The Lions get back at it tomorrow at BGM while the Ravens are at Louisa-Muscatine on Friday.