The Hillcrest Raven boys basketball team suffered their first setback of the year Friday night against Wapello 53-42 at Hillcrest Union in Kalona. Things were tight in the first half with the Ravens holding two brief single point advantages but Wapello leading 13-12 after one quarter and 23-21 at half.

Defense continued to dictate the action in the second half with Wapello winning the third period 10-9 to extend their lead to 33-30 going to the fourth. In the final frame, the Indians made enough plays to close the game on a 20-12 run in the quarter to seal the win. After the game, Hillcrest head coach Dwight Gingerich talked about his team’s defense and early season improvement. “It’s tough to get enough offensive reps early in the season. I think sometimes it’s the defense that has to carry you this time of year. Defensively we played pretty well. Offensively, we missed a few too many shots. We couldn’t score when we would get stops. We couldn’t quite get over the hump. We moved the ball better tonight. We are trying to figure out exactly who belongs in what positions in our lineup. There were some flashes of great play tonight. I think of Wapello as being a huge contender for the conference title. They’re really talented. They don’t have any holes. Proud of our effort. I saw some really good things. A lot of things to work on. We had a few minutes in the locker room right after the game before we let them go for the weekend. We’re going to give them a couple of days off and hopefully come back on Monday ready to go.”

The Ravens committed 18 turnovers in the loss to 16 for Wapello and the Indians outrebounded the Ravens by eight. Wapello was the led by 22 points from Maddox Griffin and 19 from Trent Murray. Eli Ours led the Raven attack with 17 points while John Hughes went double double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. With the loss, the Ravens have split their first two games of the year. They get ready for Louisa-Muscatine on Tuesday.