Ravens Fall Short in Hard-fought Matchup

Hillcrest hosted Wapello in a hard-fought matchup Friday, only to see Wapello pull away late for the 53-42 win over the Ravens. The Indians led 46-40 with 1:30 to play, forcing Hillcrest to gamble for the steal and foul, and the visitors made Hillcrest pay with a 7-2 run to finish the game. It was a tight ballgame to that point, as Wapello led 11-10 after one quarter, 23-21 at the half and 33-30 after three quarters. The Ravens trailed 38-36 with 4:35 to play, but could get no closer.

The Ravens were led by Eli Ours with 17 points and John Hughes with 12 points. Ours connected on a pair of triples and had four steals and four assists and Hughes had a team-high four rebounds. Noah Miller had six points and four assists, and Aaron Hershberger was 3-4 from the floor for six points. Aiden Krabill completed the scoring with a free throw.

Coach Dwight Gingerich said “both teams struggled at times with turnovers, and I thought we weathered that pretty well and competed hard. Wapello has a lot of weapons and really, I thought we were right there. It boils down to making shots, and they made a few more. I liked the effort and now we get to hunker down and work at cleaning up our execution.”