The basketball playoffs opened with a bang around southeast Iowa Thursday and the Winfield-Mt. Union Lady Wolves got the tournament trail started on the right foot, beating Hillcrest Academy 66-34 in the first round in Winfield. These two teams had played twice during the regular season in games decided by an average of 45 points, things were much closer in the third installment with the Lady Wolves holding an 18-10 lead at the end of one. After Hillcrest climbed within 18-15, WMU ended the half on an 18-2 sprint that gave them a 36-17 lead at the break. The Ravens won the third quarter, 10-6, including scoring the first seven out of half to prompt a Wolves timeout, but Winfield-Mt. Union turned it on the rest of the way outscoring the Ravens 28-10 to pull away for the win. After the contest, Lady Wolves head coach Mitch Wachs talked about his key players. “To go on that run with Keetyn (Townsley) down with foul trouble after the offensive night she had been having was big. Then she came back and hit a couple of big shots. Carlee Sloan was on the floor during that run, she came in for Keetyn and had a good night. She and Anna Anderson played well off the bench. The sheet shows that they only had one point combined, but that isn’t always what we ask them to do. They both took care of the ball. Melina Oepping was a force on the boards and hit her first three from the corner. Bradie (Buffington) had 10 tonight, but we knew that they were going to sag in and put three or four bodies on her after how the regular season meetings had gone. They packed it in and dared us a little bit from the outside and fortunately we were able to make that pay off.”

WMU won the battle on the boards by nine, hit six threes and turned Hillcrest over 23 times. The Lady Wolves put four in double figures led by 19 from Keetyn Townsley, 15 from Keely Malone, 14 from Melina Oepping and 10 from Bradie Buffington. Hillcrest was led by 18 points from Esther Hughes. Seniors Hughes, Norah Yoder and Leah Bontrager wrapped up their Raven basketball careers in the loss. Hillcrest ends the season at 1-19. WMU is now 18-4 and will host Holy Trinity in the regional quarterfinals Tuesday. The Crusaders were a 74-47 winner over New London Thursday.