Ravens Shoot Down Eagles on KCII, Advance to District Championship Game

It was a rousing victory for the Hillcrest Academy Raven boys basketball team last night at Hillcrest Union, as they took down the Keota Eagles for the second time this season by a final of 61-50 on KCII.

Hillcrest got the action heated up early with 17 first period points, leading by eight after the first eight minutes. Then, in the second, Keota responded with their own run of 16-11 to cut the gap to three by halftime. The Ravens would erase that progress with a strong third quarter in which they outscored the Eagles by seven. With the home gym packed, Hillcrest was able to put away the Eagles by making seven of their 13 foul shots in the fourth to get the win and advance.

Unofficially, Hillcrest was outrebounded by five, but committed four fewer turnovers. Leading the way were Bryce Bailey and Mason Bender with 14 each. Raven seniors Bender, Mason Helmuth, Seth Ours and Bryce Bailey were named Washington County Hospital and Clinics Players of the Game on the broadcast, and joined KCII Sports on the postgame show to talk about the win.

Bender said, “To get up on them [Keota] like that, the momentum carried throughout. It kind of showed us and proved to us what we kind of already knew. We’re a good team. We’re a good group of guys who can score the ball and play solid defense.”

Helmuth said, “My boys here, they work hard and when they need a break I step in and I try my best.”

Ours said, “We knew that going into this game, it would be a different game. It would be more challenging. Our coaches did a good job of coming up with a game plan, and in practice we worked really hard. I think we were able to execute it well tonight.”

Bailey said, “I didn’t get many shots that weren’t off of assists from Rowan [Miller], Seth or Mason. They find me when I’m open and it works really well when they trust me enough to pass me the ball when they’re down on the block and might have a place for a layup or something that they can throw up and they throw the ball out to me and they trust me enough to hit it, so it was great.”

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