Ravens Basketball Rewrites The Record Books: Season Recaps
A huge shoutout to our friend, Zach Ulin of KCII Radio. We truly appreciate your dedicated coverage of our student athletes. Not only do you bring their stories to life, but your love for stats is legendary. You dig deeper than anyone else, and we love it. A perfect example of this are the two basketball season recaps Zach wrote below.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
The best season in more than a decade for the Hillcrest Academy girls basketball program saw many new names get added to the school’s archives.
In the career category, senior Malia Yoder finishes her time at Hillcrest second with 254 total steals, fifth with 206 career assists, sixth with 41 made threes, seventh with 436 rebounds and eighth with 862 total points.
Senior Delaney Shaw grabbed 506 career rebounds, fourth most ever for a Raven.
Two Hillcrest juniors have already put themselves among the best ever with a full year left in their careers. Claire Withrow is third in school history with 171 made three point goals in her career and 10th with 835 points. Niva Helmuth is sixth in program history with 442 career rebounds.
A dozen entries into the top 10 came in single season categories. Withrow’s 67 made threes this year were second all-time, her 36.4% from the floor was sixth, to with an eighth best 70.8% mark at the free throw line and her 343 total points are ninth most for a single year. Yoder’s 102 steals this year are second for a single season, her 36% mark from the field seventh, 166 boards ninth, and 78 assists 10th most. Shaw snagged 202 rebounds this year, fourth most for a single campaign. Helmuth was fifth in program history with 80 steals this season, fifth with a 37.9% field goal percentage and eighth for a single year with 176 rebounds.
Hillcrest finished the season with an 11-12 overall record, their most wins since 2013-14.
BOYS BASKETBALL
In winning the program’s first Southeast Iowa Superconference North Division title since 2011, the Hillcrest Academy Ravens boys basketball team also did work on the school’s record books.
As a team, this Ravens bunch finished fourth all-time allowing just 43.6 points per game, the 2000-01 team allowed just 40.7 per night to set the all-time mark. The 21 total wins for this year’s edition of the Ravens are tied for seventh most in program history. The program record is 28, reached in each of the 1997-98 and 2004-05 seasons.
Individually, senior Seth Ours capped a tremendous career with record-setting numbers. Ours finished his career with 1,161 points, fifth most in Hillcrest basketball history, one spot behind his brother Eli ’21. He also finishes second in program history with 216 made threes in his career, trailing only Jason Hershberger ’92 with the record 264. His 1,151 career points are fifth most in Hillcrest history, where Hershberger also holds the record at 1,686. Ours knocked down 56 threes in the most recent season, eighth most for a single year, Hershberger holds the record here with 94 in the 91-92 campaign, Ours shot 83.9% at the line this season, ninth best ever for the Ravens. Seth’s brother Cole ’18 holds the all-time mark at 93.3% in 2016-17.
Junior Rowan Miller did his work with assists. Miller broke the school record, putting up 163 assists, this season, topping the old mark of 161 in a season, set by Aaron Gingerich in 2004-05. Miller’s 6.5 assists per game are second most ever for a Raven for a season, trailing Mike Hershberger’s 1988-89 mark by just .15. With a year still remaining at Hillcrest, Miller is already sixth all-time with 292 total assists, tied with Eli Ours ’21, with Jason Hershberger ’92 setting the record with 435 for a career.
The Ravens finished the year with a 21-4 overall record.