The Hillcrest Academy boys basketball team opens up class 1A district play tonight when they host Iowa Valley at Hillcrest Union in Kalona. The Ravens come into the game at 12-7 on the year, they finished 10-5 in the Southeast Iowa Superconference after a 34-29 loss to Burlington Notre Dame in Friday’s third place game of the Superconference Shoot Out. Eli Ours led the Ravens in the loss with 13 points. On the season, Ours leads Hillcrest at 17 points, four assists and three steals per game. John Hughes has the team lead at five rebounds per contest.

Iowa Valley enters play with a mark of 12-7, they finished 9-7 in the South Iowa Cedar League east, second place behind champion Keota. The Tigers were 70-52 winners over Sigourney in their regular season finale on Tuesday behind 40 points from Brody Ward and 16 from Peyton Loffer. On the season the Tigers are led by Ward’s 23 points and four steals per game. Evan Kearney leads Iowa Valley with four assists per game and Eli Slaymaker pulls down six rebounds per contest. This week, Hillcrest head coach Dwight Gingerich talked about preparing for Iowa Valley. “They have had a really good year. Their record is very similar to ours. They have had some big wins late, beating English Valleys last week. They have a great player in Ward, he reminds me a bit of a Peyton Thompson type player that we have had in the past, smooth, athletic, can score. They have a lot of good athletes that fit in well around him. We’ll have our hands full on Monday.”

These teams last met in the 2012 playoffs with Hillcrest taking a 98-37 win. You can hear all of the action live tonight on AM 1380, FM 102.5 and KCIIradio.com, beginning with the Washington HyVee pregame show at 6:30 and tip off at 7p.m.