The Hillcrest Academy Raven boys and girls basketball teams put on a show Saturday afternoon in Kalona for the home fans grabbing a pair of non-conference wins in the early season. The Raven boys rolled to a 63-28 victory over visiting Rivermont Collegiate. Hillcrest led 18-13 after the opening stanza and put the clamps on the Lions in the second quarter, winning the frame 16-3, including a seven and a half minute Rivermont drought, to take a 24-16 lead into the half. The Raven defense continued to dictate the action in the third, putting the Lions through another five minute drought out of halftime, as Hillcrest enacted the running clock winning the period 18-4 to take a 52-20 lead to the fourth. The Ravens shot 41% as a team and hit seven threes. They outrebounded the Lions by 16, dished out 20 assists and had 11 steals. Seth Ours had a team high 16 points, Owen Scott added 10 to go with eight rebounds. Rowan Miller and Bryce Bailey each had five assists. After the win, Ours, Scott, Bailey and Miller joined KCII Sports to talk about the victory. Ours said, “We’re moving the ball really well on offense. I was able to create some open shots, and also get some open shots based off of passes and screens from teammates.”

Scott continued, “Everyone boxing out created a lot of space for us to get rebounds.”

Bailey said, “I feel like our whole team does a good job of moving the ball, cutting, and finding the open man in transition. We’re a pretty fast team and we run the break really well. It’s easy to look up and find the open guy cutting or when we run through our offense.”

Miller finished, “No one is selfish on the team. We are always looking for the better shot. When guys are able to run and push in transition, that makes it easy to throw it ahead.”

The Hillcrest boys stand at 3-0 as Rivermont falls to 0-2.

The Raven girls moved past Morningstar Academy 57-31. Hillcrest jumped up early 14-5 and used a 26-3 run during the entire second quarter to take a 40-8 advantage to the locker room. The Ravens enacted the running clock early in the third quarter and cruised to the victory. Hillcrest shot 38% from the floor as a group and 50% from long distance. The Ravens grabbed 28 rebounds, had 19 steals and dished out 16 assists. Delaney Shaw went double double for Hillcrest 12 points and 11 boards. Claire Withrow had a team high 22 points including going three of three from deep, while Malia Yoder added 16. Following the victory, Shaw, Withrow and Yoder joined KCII sports to talk about how the win played out. Withrow said, “(It helped) Pushing the ball up the court, seeing the floor, the girls ahead in transition was important on offense.”

Yoder continued, “We really tried to pressure hard today on defense. Get turnovers and look up the court. Bringing the pressure on defense, helps us bring the energy on offense. It flows altogether when that happens.”

Shaw concluded with, “Second chance points are important with this team. Using that energy to go after the rebound and finish it.”

The win puts the Ravens back at .500 on the year at 2-2. The Hillcrest boys and girls will both be in action Tuesday night when they travel to Lone Tree for a rivalry doubleheader with the Lions. You can hear all of the action live on the KCII3 stream available exclusively at KCIIradio.com, beginning with the Game of the Week pregame show at 5:30p.m.