Photo Courtesy of Hillcrest Academy Raven Athletics
The Class 1A postseason gets underway tonight for the Hillcrest Academy Raven boys basketball team when they host the Wapello Indians. Hillcrest is 18-4 this season, champions of the North Division of the Southeast Iowa Superconference with a 15-1 record. The Ravens were 87-65 winners last time out over Cedar Valley Christian. On the year, they score 65 points per game and give up 49 on 49% shooting, 33% from three and 61% at the line with 31 rebounds, 17 assists, 11 steals and 15 turnovers per game. Individually, Kale Bailey leads with 17 points per night, Gibson Scott seven rebounds and Rowan Miller with eight assists and three steals.
Wapello is 5-16 this year, finishing 5-11, sixth in the Superconference North. They dropped a 61-48 game to WACO in their regular season finale. This year the Indians score 48 points per game and give up 58 on 37% shooting, 23% from three and 53% at the line with 31 rebounds, 12 assists, nine steals and 13 turnovers per game. Individually, Justyn Faulkner is best with 14 points, seven rebounds, six assists and four steals per game. This week, Hillcrest head coach Stephen Bender talked about his team’s keys to a deep tournament run. “Beating a team three times in one year is always difficult. We’re going to have to be ready to go and even though we’ve had pretty decent sized wins against Wapello this year, you can overlook them. They have good athletes. They have played some very good teams to very close games. I don’t think guys will overlook anybody. So against Wapello, not only do we want to win, we want to play our best game and get us ready for the next round.”
The Ravens have won 28 of the last 34 in this series and 10 straight, including 68-38 and 71-52 wins earlier this year. You can hear all of the action live tonight on FM 106.1, the KCII1 App and KCIIradio.com, beginning with the Hillcrest Playoff Pregame Show at 6:30p.m. And tip between the Ravens and Indians at seven, live from Dwight Gingerich Court at Hillcrest Union.