A post-Holiday break area basketball doubleheader will take place in Lone Tree tonight when the Lions welcome Hillcrest Academy for a Southeast Iowa Super Conference showdown. 

Both girls teams will try to climb up the division standings with the Lions sitting at 4-7 overall and sixth in the league with a 2-5 conference record while the Ravens are ninth with a 0-6 division mark and 1-8 overall. Lone Tree opened the second half of the season last night with a trip to Midland and fell to the Eagles 56-41. Kasey Chown is the season leader with 12.7 points and 8.4 rebounds a game. This is the first game back from break for Hillcrest and they will try to improve offensively in the second half after averaging 29 points through nine games. Esther Hughes does a bulk of the damage with 15.3 points and 4.2 boards. Lone Tree has won three straight in the series including a 21-6 record against the Ravens dating back to 2009. 

The Hillcrest boys will try to keep their second place position in the north with a 5-1 league record and 6-1 overall. They have held opponents to 41 points a game while recording 56 offensively. Grant Bender has led the squad with 19.9 points an outing while shooting 60% from the floor. The junior also chips in with 6.1 rebounds. The Lions are sixth in the division with a 2-4 conference mark and 2-6 overall. Adam Knock tallies 9.1 of their 39 points a night while Mitchell Koedam brings in 4.9 boards. Hillcrest won last season’s only meeting 65-31. 

The girls game gets started at 6 p.m. tonight and the boys to follow in Lone Tree. Listen to the doubleheader live on FM 106.1 KCII and kciiradio.com.