The brooms at WACO High School got a workout Friday night as the Warrior boys and girls basketball teams swept away the Hillcrest Academy Ravens in a Senior Night Southeast Iowa Superconference hoops doubleheader. In action heard live on AM and FM KCII, The WACO girls were a 63-28 winner. The Warriors sprinted to a 16-6 lead at the close of the first and found themselves on top 33-16 at the half. The Warriors continued their run after the break, pulling away with 13-6 and 17-6 runs in the third and fourth quarters respectively. After the contest, WACO head girls basketball coach Lisa Graber talked about this year’s senior class. “This senior class has put quite a bit of time into everything they do. They are a really nice group of kids. Ellah Kissell in particular, she’ll spend her summers playing AAU basketball and you can see on the floor that she’s put some time in. They are nice athletes too. Grace (Coble), Katie (Leichty) and Natalie (West). They’re a group that’s just always been pretty close and they stuck together through all these years. By the time kids are senior year, if you can keep four or five, or even more out, and they stay close and still liking each other, you can see that on the floor too. I think they play well together and they work hard. Just a nice group of kids, so it was a nice night for them to pick up a win.”
WACO put three in double figures, led by Ellah Kissell’s 28 point night that included five three pointers. Grace Coble posted 13 and Emma Wagler 12. Malia Yoder had 16 points to lead Hillcrest. The WACO girls improve to 15-3 as Hillcrest falls to 0-18.
In the boys contest, the No. 3 in Class 1A Warriors remained in the Superconference driver’s seat and unbeaten on the season with a 51-40 victory. Hillcrest not only hung around early, but held a 10-9 lead after one and the Warriors claimed a slim 22-20 advantage at the break. The two teams remained close in the third, with WACO taking a 35-31 lead to the fourth. In the final frame, the Warriors used an important 10-0 run in the middle of the period to get breathing room to finish the game. Seniors Cody Graber and Colton Leichty joined the KCII postgame show live to talk about the effort in the win Friday and the team’s overall play this season. “It’s been really good this season. It makes it easier on everyone when all of us can handle the ball. Then we can just focus on shooting and that comes pretty easy. It’s nice to have a team where even if somebody is not playing well one night that other people can pick them up and it’s just a level of trust that we have with each other.”
Graber added, “The dunk was my fifth of sixth this season. It’s pretty fun to go out there and do that, especially at home!”
Three Warriors finished with 10 points in the win including Hunter Hughes, Cody Graber and Colton Leichty. Grant Bender’s 16 points led Hillcrest and Luke Schrock got to double figures with 12. The win moves the Warriors to 16-0 on the year as Hillcrest falls to 9-9.