Ravens Close Out Regular Season Play with a Tough Loss

The Hillcrest Ravens closed out regular season play with a hard-fought match-up against Burlington Notre Dame Friday in the conference shootout, and the Nikes came out on top 34-29 in a game that went down to the wire. The game featured teams that finished third in their respective divisions in the Southeast SuperConference through conference play. Trailing 31-29 late, the Ravens missed twice on opportunities to even the score, only to see Notre Dame ice it from the free throw line with 11 seconds left.

The low-scoring affair was knotted at 9 after one quarter. Aidan Yoder scored on a putback to get the Ravens within two at 16-14 at the half. Hillcrest was able to take a 22-18 lead on an Eli Ours steal and pass ahead to Luke Schrock for the score with just under three minutes to play in the third, but an and-one put the Nikes back on top 26-25 to close the third quarter. The fourth quarter was a defensive battle, and the Nikes went into deliberate mode the last half of the quarter, forcing Hillcrest to play extremely hard end eventually foul. The score sat at 31-29 for nearly two minutes before Notre Dame converted late.

Ours led the way for Hillcrest with 13 points, and Schrock scored nine points. Yoder, Aaron Hershberger and John Hughes scored two points apiece, and Aiden Krabill connected on a free throw to complete the scoring. Hershberger crashed the boards for 13 rebounds, and Ours had team-highs of three steals and three assists.

Coach Dwight Gingerich said “our defense kept us in it when our shots were not falling against a quality team. It was a tough night with the foul situation, and we had guys really step up to help us off the bench.”

The Ravens finish the regular season at 12-7, and open up District Tournament play Monday, hosting a 12-7 Iowa Valley squad at 7 p.m.