Photo Courtesy of Hillcrest Academy
It’s playoff time for the Hillcrest Academy Raven boys basketball team Monday night when they entertain the Iowa City Regina Regals in the first round of the Class 1A District tournament. Hillcrest enters action with an 11-10 overall record, finishing 10-6 in the Southeast Iowa Superconference after a 78-27 win over Columbus to close the regular season February 7th. For the year, Hillcrest is scoring 56 points per game and giving up 47, shooting 44% from the floor, 31% from long range and 59% from the line with 24 rebounds, 14 assists, 11 steals and 12 turnovers per game. Individual leaders include Grant Bender at 18 points and six boards per night with Luke Schrock posting three assists and three steals per game.
Iowa Ciiy Regina is 9-12 this year, they finished 7-5 in the River Valley Conference. They were also winners Tuesday to wrap up the regular season 63-55 over West Liberty. On the season, the Regals score 53 points per game and give up 59, shooting 41% from the floor, 32% from three and 63% at the line with 30 rebounds, 13 assists, six steals and 15 turnovers per game. Individual leaders include Drew Streb at 14 points and seven rebounds per game. Eddie Petersen has three assists and a steal per night. This week Raven head coach Dwight Gingerich talked about his team’s preparation and the keys to postseason success. “Lately, we played a little cleaner. We executed the different schemes and things that we wanted to do. It feels like all five guys are the floor are together in what we are trying to do. It was good balance for us. We have Regina at our place on Monday and we had a chance to play them in the Hall of Pride game first thing this year and they kind of took it to us, so, we know that our hands are very full. They are playing really well right now. Their 8-12 record is deceiving. Really looking forward to playing Monday night.”
These teams met in a scrimmage earlier this year, but have not taken the floor against one another in an official game since 2013. Hillcrest has won two in a row over Regina. You can hear all of the action between the Ravens and Regals live tonight on FM 106.1 and KCIIradio.com, beginning with the Washington HyVee Pregame Show at 6:30 and tip off at 7p.m. from Dwight Gingerich Court at Hillcrest Union.