Hillcrest Ravens Make a Huge Comeback to Defeat Danville Bears
The Hillcrest Ravens made it two dramatic finishes in two nights, coming from a 49-39 deficit with five minutes to play, to score another comeback win, this time on Saturday over the visiting Danville Bears by the score of 51-49. It was Aaron Hershberger with the alert follow for the game winner, his only basket of the evening, to give Hillcrest the lead and the win. The Ravens outscored the Bears 12-0 during the final five minutes, shutting down the Bears who came out smoking, knocking down six treys in the first half.
Tied at 49 following two huge free throws from John Hughes, the Bears turned the ball over, giving Hillcrest the ball with 40 seconds left. Hillcrest played for one, and Eli Ours saw an opening and drove it into the lane, only to have the shot blocked into the waiting hands of teammate Hershberger, who knocked it home. Danville would get one last attempt against the Hillcrest full court pressure, and had to settle for a 15 footer that was well off the mark for the Raven win. The Hershberger follow and final margin was Hillcrest’s first lead since scoring the game’s first two points.
Hughes led Hillcrest’s scoring attack with 16 points and pulled down five rebounds. Ours had 10 points and eight assists. Noah Miller came up big with nine points on 3-3 from the floor, five rebounds, two assists and two steals. Miller knocked down all nine of his points in the decisive fourth quarter to ignite the Raven run. Grant Bender scored seven points and had three assists. Ours and Miller each had two treys and Bender and Luke Schrock had one apiece. Aiden Krabill and Will Kolck each had two points to complete the scoring. Hershberger had five rebounds and two assists, and Schrock had three assists.
Coach Dwight Gingerich said, “This was an incredible effort by our guys to work together to come back against a very good team. We had too many turnovers through the first three quarters, and I credit Danville for some of that, with their length and aggressiveness. We responded much better late and that really helped us.”
Hillcrest goes to 6-4 overall and next plays Tuesday at Mediapolis.
