Photo Courtesy of Hillcrest Academy Yearbook Staff

In front of full house at Hillcrest Union, the Hillcrest Academy Ravens entertained the Wapello Indians and Arrows on Alumni Night in Kalona. The Raven boys sent the fans home happy with a 59-46 victory. It was bombs away early for Hillcrest, putting up 19 points in the first quarter on five three point goals, three of them from sophomore sharpshooter Seth Ours and one each for Luke Schrock and Jace Rempel. Wapello was resilient, trailing by a dozen entering the second, the Indians won the next eight minutes and trailed just 29-24 at half. After an even third frame, Wapello scored quickly in the fourth to climb within two, and the Ravens countered with an 11-0 run that included key baskets from Ours and Grant Bender to take back control and finish the win. After the game, Hillcrest head coach Dwight Gingerich talked about how his team finished down the stretch and his standout performers. “I’m proud of our guys for bouncing back, coming together, and playing hard, in spite of us not really being able to be together for a few days.  It really helped us a lot tonight to keep the turnovers down. Seth (Ours) played his heart out tonight. Playing a ton of minutes tired. He hit some big shots. He played awesome. He’s doing a lot of things out there for us. Leading us as a sophomore. Grant (Bender) played hard, he’s been struggling with some illness. Bryce (Bailey) is pretty heady. He’s able to conceptualize what it is we’re trying to do and he’s only going to get better. Mason Bender also got some big boards for us and then Rowan Miller, freshman guard came in, had a nice steal and went down and got a layup.”

Hillcrest forced 16 Wapello turnovers and beat the Indians by 11 on the glass. Ours ended with a game high 22, Bender got to double figures with 15. The Hillcrest boys are now 5-2 going into the holiday break.

The Raven girls were bitten by the turnover bug against the Arrows, falling by a 46-13 score. The Wapello defense imposed it’s will on Hillcrest early, holding the Ravens without a field goal for 11 straight minutes of the first half while they raced out to a 25-1 run to take a 25-8 lead into half. Wapello would win the third frame 10-5 and shut out the Ravens in the fourth period to put the game away. The Arrows forced 42 Hillcrest turnovers and put the Ravens through three scoring droughts of five minutes or more, including two, 10 minutes or longer. The Ravens were led by eight points from Claire Withrow. Hillcrest goes into Christmas break at 0-9 overall.