It’s more conference play tonight for WACO and Hillcrest Academy, as the two teams are set to collide in a boy-girl doubleheader tonight on KCII.

The girls contest will kick things off. WACO, tonight’s hosts, come in winless at 0-4, but have been consistently close to coming out on top. The Warriors have lost three games by 6 points or less, with their lone double-digit loss coming to Louisa-Muscatine last week. WACO is averaging 41.7 points a game, while allowing 49 points against them. Team leaders for the Warriors include juniors Brenna Graber at 11.7 points a game, and Carlee Lunsford at 8.3 points. Fellow junior Madelyn Farmer leads WACO at 6.7 rebounds per game.

On the other side, Hillcrest is 3-3 for the season, but just 1-3 in conference play with their lone win coming over 1-5 WMU. The Ravens are coming off of a 1-point loss to Wapello, 41-40. Seniors Clair Withrow and Niva Hulmuth are leading the team in scoring, with 13.3 and 8.2 points per game respectively. Helmuth is also the team’s leading rebounder with 8.7 boards a game, but sophomore Marryn Boshart is also grabbing 5.7 rebounds per game as well.

WACO has won 22 of the last 27 meetings between the two teams going back to 2008. However, the teams split the series last year, with the Ravens finally breaking a 14-game losing streak that had gone back to 2014.

Following the girls, the boys will take to the floor. Both teams are undefeated in conference play this year. WACO is 3-1 overall and 3-0 in the conference, and defeated Lone Tree 56-53 on Friday. The Warriors are led by a strong junior class. Holden Hughes, Sam Meyer, Hayden Shelman are all averaging above 10 points this season. Hughes, a 6’4″ forward, is also the team’s leading rebounder at 8.8 boards a contest.

The Hillcrest Academy boys, unlike WACO, are undefeated both in conference and overall record, standing at 4-0. The Ravens defeated Wapello 71-52 on Friday. Junior Kale Bailey has been a force to be reckoned with, scoring 20.5 points a game while grabbing 7.8 rebounds a game too. Senior Rowan Miller and sophomore Gibson Scott have also been key contributors for the team.

Hillcrest leads the all-time series 22-7 since 2008, but the teams did split in 2024-2025. In both games, the victor scored 48, with WACO winning the first contest 48-46 and Hillcrest fighting back to take the January tilt 48-45.

Tonight’s doubleheader will begin with the Area Game of the Week Pregame Show at 5:30 p.m. Tip-off of the girls game is at 6, with the boys to follow. You can listen in on FM106.1, the KCII1 app, and kciiradio.com.