Photo Courtesy of Hillcrest Academy

The Hillcrest Academy boys and girls basketball teams took one end and dropped the other end of a Southeast Iowa Superconference doubleheader with the Pekin Panthers Friday night at Dwight Gingerich Court at Hillcrest Union. The Raven boys completed a season sweep of the Panthers by a 50-39 score. Defenses dominated the first half with the Ravens up 12-9 after the first quarter and Pekin holding a slim 22-21 advantage at the break. Hillcrest opened the second half with a 12-2 run to take a lead they wouldn’t give up the rest of the night, on key baskets from Grant Bender, Aiden Krabill Seth Ours and Luke Schrock. Hillcrest would stretch the lead to as many as 16 in the fourth. After the game, Hillcrest head coach Dwight Gingerich talked about his team’s second half run and key players. “The guys were aggressive. Grant (Bender) got to the basket and had some tough finishes. Luke (Schrock) stepped up big in the second half and had some strong finishes. I think in the second half our mentality was a little stronger, later.  Luke seems to thrive in those situations and Grant doesn’t play with any fear either. They are a couple of guys that are ready to attack. It was good to see Seth (Ours) knock down a couple of shots through the night as well. We just need to stay aggressive and sometimes that’s hard to do in a game like this where every possession matters, but I thought we got better in the second half at staying aggressive.”

The Ravens were led by 22 points from Grant Bender and 14 from Luke Schrock, with 11 of Schrock’s coming after half. Hillcrest forced 11 Panther turnovers and outrebounded Pekin by three. With the win, the Ravens are 12-3 on the year, 10-3 in the Superconference while Pekin falls to 7-10 overall.

In the girls contest, a big first half led Pekin to the victory 54-26. The Panthers started the game on a 22-2 run that included a six minute Raven scoring drought and held a 27-4 lead at the break. Pekin would grow the lead to 31 late in the third quarter. Hillcrest got the offense on the track in the final period, scoring 17 points, 13 of those at the line, but the Panthers matched them with 17 of their own to finish the victory. Kerrigan Pope led the Panthers with 31 points and 16 boards. Esther Hughes got to double figures for Hillcrest with 12 points. The Ravens are now 1-15 on the year while Pekin moves to 8-10.