Photos Courtesy of Hillcrest Academy Yearbook
The Hillcrest Academy girls and boys basketball teams scored a pair of wins in the Southeast Iowa Superconference Shoot Out to close last week. Thursday, the Raven girls ran away from New London 60-39 at Louisa-Muscatine. Hillcrest led 20-7 after one and 40-18 at the break. The Ravens maintained focus and didn’t let the Tigers back in the contest after intermission. Hillcrest outrebounded New London 44-18, came away with 22 steals and had 10 team assists. Malia Yoder went double double 28 points and 10 rebounds. Claire Withrow ended with 12 points and Niva Helmuth had 16 rebounds. Sophie Malott led the Tigers with 16 points. Head coach Mitchell Drey joined the KCII Radio Coaches Corner Saturday to talk about the win. “Malia Yoder as a point guard 28 points and 10 rebounds. Niva (Helmuth) who’s playing big inside for us, coming back on Thursday, ready to go and hustling, after missing time late against Wapello Tuesday. Delaney (Shaw) was right there close with her. I felt like to start this game the girls wanted to make a point of ‘we’re going to play as hard as we can because we’ve worked hard to get here. We had to fight and claw to get into this spot.’ They came in with the mindset of, all rebounds are already ours, we’re going to force steals, we’re going to play for each other and it showed!”
Hillcrest is now 6-14, their most wins in five years as they get ready for a first round regional matchup Thursday at WACO.
The Raven boys knocked off Central Lee at Burlington Notre Dame Friday 54-40. Defenses dominated early, with the Ravens up 6-4 after one and 18-16 at halftime. Out of the break, Hillcrest sprinted through the third quarter on a 23-9 run to take control. The Ravens were efficient, shooting 45% with 13 team assists. Raven Head Coach Dwight Gingerich joined the KCII Radio Coaches Corner Saturday to break down the win. Gingerich said, “In the third quarter we tried to get the game a little more up and down. They are bigger than we are, more physical, and it took some time for us to match that, but I thought we handled it better. Defensively, we did a great job on their two leading scorers. Rowan Miller was the primary defender on their off-guard and Mason Bender on Wyrick, their 6-4 forward. Seth Ours shot the lights out. Mason Bender being able to kick and find the open man, that’s a key skill. It’s good to see him do that and still when there’s daylight take it to the basket. You can see the improvement this year in each of our guys and I think that was evident Friday.”
Seth Ours went for a game high 26 points, including four threes. Bryce Bailey added 10 points. Mason Bender led on the boards with seven and Rowan Miller had six assists. Cory Jones led the Hawks with 10 points. Hillcrest is now 13-7 on the year as they prepare for a visit from Columbus Tuesday.