The third meeting of the season between Highland and the Hillcrest Academy boys took place in Riverside on Thursday and the Huskies were able to hold off the Ravens 47-36 in a class 1A district quarterfinal.

As heard on KCII, the Ravens were patient offensively against the Huskie 2-3-zone defense and kept it close trailing just 11-9 after one. Highland picked it up offensively and started hitting the glass to lead 30-21 at the break on the strength of 11 points from Cole Adamson. Much of the second half was a stalemate with the Huskies never pulling away, but the Ravens could never get closer than eight. With two minutes left the dagger came from Bill Laughlin when the Highland senior nailed four consecutive free throws to put the game on ice. Adamson finished with a team-high 14 points, Laughlin had 11, and Zack Lasek recorded 11. Head Coach Bill Zywiec tells KCII Sports it was another hard fought methodical win for his team. “We aren’t really a flashy team. We average 55 points a game so we don’t really get up and down and score a lot of points. What we do well is control the tempo with our defense and attempt high percentage shots on the offensive end. That is exactly what we did tonight.” The Raven’s Eli Ours had a stretch of eight points in 90 seconds of play in the first half and finished with 14. Kobe Borntrager was also in double figures with 10.

Highland improves to 19-4 and advances to the district semifinal on Tuesday in Riverside against North Cedar. The Knights defeated Lisbon last night 76-50. Hillcrest Academy closes the year 11-10 and say goodbye to Borntrager and Drew Blauvelt.