Girls Fall to Danville

The Hillcrest girls played their final game of the regular season at Danville and lost the matchup, 32-53.

Both teams got off to a bit of a slow start, but it was Danville that found their rhythm first as they went on a 9-0 run to close out the first quarter. Junior guard Yani Gutierrez knocked down a three to get things rolling for the Ravens and was very active in the opening half offensively. “It was nice to see Yani continue her confident, aggressive play again tonight,” Hillcrest head coach Kari Heusinkveld said. “She has been solid for us all season long and over the last several weeks has really found her rhythm.”

Hillcrest fought hard for a full 32 minutes but came up short. “We didn’t take care of things as well as we needed to on the defensive end,” Heusinkveld said. “We need to do a better job of communicating, keeping people in front and rebounding, ultimately that’s what cost us the game. We’ve come a long way over the last number of weeks, but our defensive performance will need to be better this Thursday at Lone Tree.”

Gutierrez paced the Ravens with 18 points, two steals and six rebounds. Sophomore guard Esther Hughes added 11 points, four assists, two steals and five rebounds. Junior Sarah Miller added a bucket inside, and Leah Bontrager rounded out the scoring with a free throw. Bontrager also secured five rebounds.

The Ravens travel to Lone Tree on Thursday, February 13th to take on the Lady Lions in Round 1 of Regional play. Tipoff is set for 7 PM.