Photo Courtesy of Hillcrest Academy Yearbook

The Hillcrest Academy Raven boys and girls basketball teams split a Southeast Iowa Superconference doubleheader in Kalona Friday night against Louisa-Muscatine. The Raven boys got the win 71-63. Hillcrest was up a touchdown after one at 21-14 and held a 38-33 advantage at half. L-M would close the margin to three going to the fourth, but the Ravens turned up the defense and got timely offense down the stretch to take the eight point victory. Hillcrest head coach Dwight Gingerich joined the KCII Radio Coaches Corner to talk about what decided the game and his standouts.

Gingerich said, “Defensively I thought we got off to a good start. Bryce Bailey had a career high and a tremendous game. He scored the ball in transition and in our half-court offense. He was able to attack from different places and we really needed that. Seth Ours scored 15 points for us and did a nice job. We got some good minutes off the bench from Lincoln Miller, Owen Scott, Isaac Birky and Mason Helmuth.”

Hillcrest knocked down nine threes as a team, had 20 assists on 26 made shots, 12 steals and forced 23 Falcon turnovers. Bryce Bailey had a career high 33 points, connecting on 13 total shots, including five threes. Seth Ours scored 15, Mason Bender 10 and Rowan Miller finished with 11 assists. Finn Cline led L-M with 18 points. The Ravens are now 9-1 overall, 7-1 in conference play while L-M falls to 4-6 and 3-4 in the league.

The Raven girls were on the wrong end of a 46-33 final. The Ravens had a 12-7 lead after one, but the second period was a 13-4 Falcon run that gave them a 20-16 lead at intermission. L-M used a 16-9 sprint in the third to pull out to a 36-25 lead before closing the game in the fourth. The Ravens grabbed 32 rebounds, had 15 steals and dished out 10 assists. Claire Withrow finished with 10 points, Delaney Shaw had 10 boards. The loss drops Hillcrest to 5-5 on the season and 3-5 overall.