The Hillcrest Academy Raven boys & girls basketball teams came away with wins on Friday night over Winfield Mt. Union. The Raven boys got a big win by outlasting the Wolves 51-43. Hillcrest and WMU were very close most of the first half. Hillcrest jumped out to a 14-7 lead in the first quarter. The Ravens were led by the big three of Seth Ours, Rowan Miller and Byrce Bailey. Hillcrest took a 30-18 lead into half and had some big shots from Byrce Bailey who dropped eight points in the second quarter. In the third quarter, WMU trimmed the lead to eight, led by Lane Genkinger, who had four points in the quarter. The Wolves outscored the Ravens in the third, 18-14 to narrow Hillcrest`s lead to just eight going into the final period. In the fourth, defenses dictated the action as the two teams combined for 12 points. Hillcrest sealed the win at the line. Mason Bender and Kale Bailey were key for the Ravens as they got their 13th win overall and 10th conference victory of the season.
Raven guard Seth Ours joined the KCII postgame show to talk about their big win over the Wolves. “It’s huge winning in a game like this where it’s low scoring. We kind of needed to adjust to their defense a little bit, but everyone was getting the ball. We were really moving the ball really well. When it’s harder for me and Bryce (Bailey) to get some shots off, it’s really key for the other three to step up. Rowan (Miller) did a really good job of penetrating the gaps and finding Mason (Bender) or Kale (Bailey) or Bryce (Bailey) under their zone. Mason (Bender) does a great job of always going after the rebound. Rebounding is all about effort and Mason (Bender) has a lot of that. We really focused this past week on rebounding out of our zone, especially a big time like Winfield Mt-Union. It was good that we could execute that”.
Hillcrest forced 19 turnovers and only committed 8 in the win. This is now Hillcrest’s second straight win over WMU, completing the season sweep. The Bailey brothers, Kale and Bryce, led the team in scoring with 12 points. Seth Ours and Mason Bender both had 10 points in the win. On the other side, WMU was led by Jake Edwards, who finished with 19 points. Lane Genkinger and Max Edwards both had 10 points in the loss. Hillcrest goes to 13-1 on the year and 10-1 in conference play. WMU now drops to 8-6 and 8-3 in the conference.
Hillcrest academy girls got the win 63-43. They are now 6-8 on the season and 3-7 in the conference. With the win they end their 5 game losing streak. The Raven girls set the tone early with a 17-8 lead after the first quarter and led 27-17 at half. In the third quarter, Hillcrest started to pull away with two three point shots by Claire Withrow and 7 points from Niva Helmuth helping the Ravens to a 47-33 lead going to the fourth. Withrow hit two triples in the third quarter as the Ravens took their biggest lead of the game 47-33. In the fourth, the Ravens outscored the Wolves 16-10.
Withrow and Yoder joined the KCII postgame show live to talk about the win. “We just moved the ball really well tonight. I think we just played really well together. Our pressure was definitely there tonight and also our effort has really improved since the last time that we played them, so that helped us out a lot,” said Withrow put the name of who said which quote at the start of each quote and use paragraph spacing to break them apart from each other. “I think our intensity was there as far as defense. We were able to get those steals and just get some good transition points, which helped us get our lead early, said Yoder.
The Ravens forced 35 turnovers. They also won in the rebounding department 33-28. In the loss, WMU was led by Kynlee Buffington who finished with 13 points. For WMU, they now fall to 2-14 and 1-10 in the conference.