Photo Courtesy of Hillcrest Academy
The Hillcrest Academy boys and girls basketball teams were at Wapello Monday night for a makeup Southeast Iowa Superconference doubleheader with the Indians and Arrows. The Raven boys took a tight road win 48-44. Wapello led 14-11 after one and Hillcrest tied it at 20 at the half, holding the Indians without a field goal for the first five minutes of the second frame to erase the lead. The Ravens continued their aggressive offensive play in the second half, putting Wapello in foul trouble and cashing in at the line. Of Hillcrest’s 28 second half points, 13 of them came at the stripe. Up 33-28 going to the fourth, Luke Schrock put Hillcrest on his back and carried them to the finish line. The junior scored a game high 18 points, 12 of them in the final quarter and he was the only Raven with a field goal in the final frame. Even with Schrock’s heroics, Hillcrest was up just three in the final 20 seconds when the officials called a foul as Jackson Lanz was in the act of shooting a three point shot. The Indian forward had to make all three free throws with under two seconds on the clock to send the game to overtime. He would miss the first, make the second and miss the rim on an intentional misfire on the third. A flagrant foul against Wapello in the final nine tenths of a second secured the win for Hillcrest. After the game, Raven head coach Dwight Gingerich talked about Schrock and the play of senior Aiden Krabill. “Late in the game in the fourth quarter, Luke Schrock kinda put us on his back. His penetration got him to the foul line. They just had no answer for him. We kept going to him and he was making plays. He was eight of 10 on free throws for the game. He came up big. Aiden Krabill did a lot of really good things for us tonight again. Did a great job working hard to deny (Maddox) Griffin the ball. Then on offense he hit some big shots. In the end we did what we needed to do and we were able to survive. You get a win at Wapello, it’s always a great win!”
Krabill did it on both ends of the floor, tasked on defense with slowing down reigning conference player of the year Maddox Griffin, whom he held eight points below his season average, Krabill scored 11 of his own on offense. Grant Bender also got to double figures with 12. With the win, Hillcrest sweeps the season series with Wapello and is now 11-3.
The Raven girls had a slow start in a 43-23 loss to the Arrows. Wapello led 11-0 after the first quarter and 22-3 at half on three Esther Hughes free throws as the Arrow defense held the Ravens without a first half field goal. The lead would climb to as large as 24 in the third quarter before Hillcrest rallied to pull with 11, winning the third quarter 15-10, but that was as close as they would get down the stretch. Hughes led Hillcrest with 18 points. With the loss, the Ravens are 1-12 overall. The Hillcrest boys and girls are next on the floor Friday when they host Pekin.