The KCII Area Game of the Week saw a Southeast Iowa Superconference split Friday night in Kalona, as the Hillcrest girls fell to the Pekin Panthers 52-40 and the Raven boys kept up their unbeaten streak with a 57-49 win in the nightcap on the KCII3 Stream.

Overall, it was a defensive struggle in the girls game, with Hillcrest up 14-11 after one and down 20-23 at half. The Ravens were powered at that point by seven first quarter points by Niva Helmuth, while Anna Hadley had 12 for Pekin. In the third frame, a new face began to pile up the points in Panther Carlie Gambell. Gambell poured in half of her 14 total points on the night in the third alone to help push her team’s lead to seven before the final eight minutes. Although the Ravens tried to mount a comeback at times, Pekin would always have the answer. Hadley and Gambell combined for 10 more points in the fourth to close the win.

Unofficially, Hadley led all scorers with 24 points, followed by Gambell’s aforementioned 14. Hillcrest saw season leader Claire Withrow atop the heap when all was said and done with 13 points, backed by 12 from freshman Brynna Boshart. Hillcrest won turnovers 25-35, but lost rebounds 43-30.

In the boys game, the Ravens used a 12-3 run in the middle of the second quarter to grow what was already a comfortable lead to take the win. Hillcrest led 14-11 after one, 27-19 after two and 44-30 after three, powered by three combined triples in the third frame from Rowan and Lincoln Miller. Individually, Hillcrest was led by Rowan Miller’s 17 points, followed by Kale Bailey’s 11 and Gibson Scott’s nine. The Superconference North’s leading scorer in points per game, Pekin senior Cole Millikin, struggled to find the scoreboard until the fourth quarter when he scored nine of his 10 total points. Nolan Glick was the game-high scorer with 24 points. Unofficially, the Ravens won rebounds 28-25, but lost turnovers 19-17.

After the game, Raven senior Rowan Miller joined KCII Sports to break down the pivotal victory.

“I mean, you always want to perform for your home crowd. You always wanna pull out a win, especially when you have a packed house and all of your past players and students coming out to watch you and support you. I’m not sure I felt much pressure compared to other games. I know some of the other guys did, but hopefully we were able to work through that and I’m sure as soon as the ball tipped off, all that went away and we were just able to play the game,” Miller said. “Just proud of our guys. It wasn’t pretty, but we got it done and keep stacking up the wins.”

Hillcrest marches their unbeaten conference campaign into the new year at 6-0 with a non-conference matchup with Fairfield Saturday. The Raven girls are now 1-5 in conference play, and are off until January 2nd when they hit the road to take on Louisa-Muscatine.