The Hillcrest Academy boys basketball team suffered only their second loss since Christmas break on Friday, falling 48-30 at No. 9 Pekin. The Ravens led 9-5 after the first quarter with Eli Ours supplying all of the Hillcrest points. Pekin took the lead for good with an 8-0 run in the second frame to go up 21-15 at half. They parlayed that into an 18-4 run that spanned portions of the second and third quarter and would lead 33-24 going to the fourth. The Panthers outscored the Ravens 13-6 in the final period to put the game away. After the contest, Hillcrest head coach Dwight Gingerich talked about his team’s effort. “You can tell that we got a little bit tired. We got in the lane but got some shots rejected because of a lack of awareness. Those things all seemed to add up. I thought we did a better job in this game for a larger period of time than in our first matchup with them. Eli Ours is really playing like the all-conference player that he is. He’s really solid. They were physical with him tonight and he gave it all he had. In spite of the physicality he had a pretty good night. The rebounding and turnovers told the story tonight. They got too many second chances tonight and it hurt us.”

Pekin outrebounded Hillcrest by 13 on the night and won the turnover battle 14-6. The Panthers were led by Brock Long’s 16 points and 14 from Chandler Stull. Ours led the Ravens with 16. With the win, Pekin is now 16-1 on the season while Hillcrest falls to 10-6.