Our seventh biggest sports story of the academic year at Hillcrest Academy takes us to Dwight Gingerich Court inside of Hillcrest Union. The Hillcrest boys scored their biggest win of the basketball season December 13th when they took down the Pekin Panthers 68-54 in Kalona. The Ravens were hot early, scoring the games first seven points and holding a 16-7 lead after one quarter.

The Panthers made a move in the second quarter to get within 27-23 but Hillcrest withstood the charge and took a 34-28 lead into the half. Out of the locker room, the two teams played even late into the third where the Ravens held a 48-41 lead, from that point on Kobe Borntrager and Noah Miller took over in the game’s final 10 minutes and helped Hillcrest to the victory. After the game, Raven head coach Dwight Gingerich talked about the team victory. “We got contributions up and down the lineup tonight. Eli Ours had 27 points but also played a great floor game and got others involved. I thought Noah Miller was terrific and Kobe Borntrager stepped out and hit some big shots. We got great minutes from Aaron Hershberger, Drew Blauvelt, Will Kolck, Aiden Yoder and others off the bench tonight. It was really a team win over a very good Pekin team.”

Eli Ours led the way for Hillcrest with 27 points, 20 of those in the first half. Noah Miller finished with 17, 11 in the second half and Kobe Borntrager 14, 12 of those in the second half. The loss was the first on the year for the Pekin boys, and would be their only conference loss as they finished as 15-1 Superconference North Division champions, captured a district title and advanced to the substate round of the postseason. Hillcrest finished 11-10 and was eliminated in the opening round of the playoffs.