RAVEN BOYS RUN AWAY FROM PANTHERS; PEKIN BEATS HILLCREST GIRLS IN SPLIT
Article & Title submitted by Zach Ulin/KCII
The Hillcrest Academy boys and girls basketball teams took one end and dropped the other end of a Southeast Iowa Super Conference doubleheader with the Pekin Panthers Friday night at Dwight Gingerich Court at Hillcrest Union. The Raven boys completed a season sweep of the Panthers by a 50-39 score. Defenses dominated the first half with the Ravens up 12-9 after the first quarter and Pekin holding a slim 22-21 advantage at the break. Hillcrest opened the second half with a 12-2 run to take a lead they wouldn’t give up the rest of the night, on key baskets from Grant Bender, Aiden Krabill, Seth Ours and Luke Schrock. Hillcrest would stretch the lead to as many as 16 in the fourth. After the game, Hillcrest head coach Dwight Gingerich talked about his team’s second half run and key players. “The guys were aggressive. Grant (Bender) got to the basket and had some tough finishes. Luke (Schrock) stepped up big in the second half and had some strong finishes. I think in the second half our mentality was a little stronger, later. Luke seems to thrive in those situations and Grant doesn’t play with any fear either. They are a couple of guys that are ready to attack. It was good to see Seth (Ours) knock down a couple of shots through the night as well. We just need to stay aggressive and sometimes that’s hard to do in a game like this where every possession matters, but I thought we got better in the second half at staying aggressive.”
