Photo Courtesy of Hillcrest Academy Yearbook

Friday the Hillcrest Academy boys and girls basketball teams battled Louisa-Muscatine in Letts for a Southeast Iowa Superconference doubleheader. The boys stayed perfect on the year with a 75-44 victory on the road. L-M started the game with three straight threes to go up 9-0. After a quick time out, it was all Ravens. They closed the quarter on a 20-4 run, then used a 17-8 run in the second to go on top 37-21 at half. Hillcrest posted 28 points in the third and enacted the running clock in the fourth. Hillcrest head coach Stephen Bender joined the KCII Radio Coaches Corner to talk about what keyed his team’s victory. “We take good shots, we don’t take a lot of hurried threes. We like to work inside-out. Penetrate and kick, and when you can do that I feel like your percentages go up. (Kale Bailey) did hit a three, his first three of the year, but most of his stuff came inside. He did a good job finishing against a team with length like L-M that leads our conference in blocked shots. He also kicked the ball and found open teammates, and they were able to knock down shots. Our perimeter game continues to improve. We don’t shoot a lot of threes, but we are efficient in our percentage, it’s one of the best, if not the best in the conference.”

The Ravens shot 51% to 35% for L-M and won rebounds 38-37, assists 19-8, and turnovers 24-20. Kale Bailey went double double for the Ravens with 28 points and 10 rebounds. Rowan Miller had 21 points and a team best six assists. Gibson Scott added 10 points. The win pushed the Ravens to 8-0 and dropped the Falcons to 1-7.

The Falcons were a 52-35 girls winner on Friday. Slow starts in each half doomed the Ravens, as L-M led 18-6 after one and held a 27-17 advantage at half, before going on a 21-6 sprint that lasted the entire third quarter. The Ravens out shot the Falcons 41-29% from the floor and won rebounds 39-34. The Ravens could not overcome 48 turnovers. Niva Helmuth led Hillcrest with nine points and 15 rebounds. Claire Withrow had five assists. The loss dropped the Ravens to 3-6, while L-M jumped to 7-2.