The Hillcrest boys basketball team celebrated five seniors on Tuesday with a wire-to-wire win over visiting Winfield-Mt. Union at Hillcrest Union in Kalona 57-30. The Ravens never trailed, opening the game on a 10-2 run and leading 16-2 after the first quarter. They would post 27 points in the second while WMU had just one made field goal through the game’s first 12 minutes. Hillcrest took a 43-14 lead into the break. The Ravens hit the 29 point mark with their lead several times in the second half as they held off any Winfield-Mt. Union comeback attempts. After the game, Hillcrest head coach Dwight Gingerich talked about the night and his seniors. “It’s a great group of seniors who have really worked hard through the year. Leadershipwise, on and off the court, through the school, they have been great in the classroom. It’s fun to see them together, being a group, being a team. The ball was really moving well at times. During a time out we talked about the ball stopping versus the ball flowing. We got the ball inside to John Hughes and Aaron Hershberger. I thought our pressure created some problems for them. They are a different team without Buffington out there. We played defensively without a lot of gaps or slippage. It’s really what you want to see this time of the season.”

John Hughes led the way for Hillcrest with a 23 points. Eli Ours also got to double figures with 17 points. The Ravens forced 18 WMU turnovers and outrebounded the Wolves by 14. Without the services of leading scorer Cam Buffington, the Wolves were led by 13 points from Abram Edwards. With the win, Hillcrest is now 12-6 on the year and 10-5 in the Superconference. WMU falls to 8-9 overall, 6-7 in the north. The Ravens honored seniors Eli Ours, John Hughes, Aidan Yoder, Will Kolck and Aaron Herhsberger in a ceremony before the game.