Road Warrior Ravens Sweep WACO Friday in Wayland

Article Credit: Zach Ulin/KCII
Bob Hilmer Court in Wayland played host to a high level hoops doubleheader Friday in the Southeast Iowa Superconference, with the Hillcrest Academy Ravens taking a sweep of the WACO Warriors. In a battle for first place in the conference it was the Raven boys that scored an important 48-45 win. Each team entered with just one loss in league play. Defenses dictated action most of the night, with the contest tied at 10 after one and the Warriors using an 8-0 first half run to take a 22-17 lead to intermission. Hillcrest would get as close as two in the third quarter, but WACO star Christian Stacey heated up in the frame, scoring 16 of his 18 points after half, to keep the Warriors up 37-31 going to the fourth. Hillcrest responded with a 7-0 run to start the final period and take their first lead since the opening quarter at 38-37, and the two teams rode a dramatic see-saw the rest of the way. The advantage changed hands a half dozen times in the fourth and three times in the game’s final 90 seconds. Isaac Rich hit two important shots for the Warriors in that stretch to put them back in front each time, but the winner came on a corner three from Raven senior sniper Seth Ours with 11 seconds remaining. Following the clutch basket, Hillcrest made two key defensive stops as a pair of WACO possessions came up empty. Following the contest Ours spoke on the KCII postgame show, about the team win and the shot.

Ours said, “Both teams were playing good defense. We were hitting tough shots. We were down at half. Stephen (Bender) our assistant and Dwight (Gingerich) said, ‘It’s going to come down to who wants it more, effort and grit’. I think we had more of that in the second half. Everyone stepped up. There was no individual player that won this game for us tonight. (On the winning shot), I was in the wing-corner area, my guy goes down to double (Mason) Bender, and Bender does a great job of finding me while I was open. Yeah, I knew it was in right when I shot it!”

Ours led Hillcrest with 13 points, Bryce Bailey had 10. The WACO side was led by Stacy’s 18 points, capping an incredible 89 point week in three games. Holden Hughes got to double figures with 11. The Warriors won the glass by five and Ravens the turnover category 13-11. Hillcrest takes sole possession of first place in the Superconference North at 12-1 and stands at 15-1 overall. WACO is 12-4 on the year and 8-2 in league play.

The girls contest saw a long streak come to an end as Hillcrest scored their first win over the Warriors in 11 years and 14 tries in a 50-39 contest. WACO used an 8-0 first quarter run to go up 13-10 after the first eight minutes. The Raven response was an 11-1 burst in the second quarter, fueled by six threes in the frame, including two each from Claire Withrow and Lydia Beachy and one each for Malia Yoder and Delaney Shaw, giving Hillcrest a 34-25 lead at half. WACO won the third quarter 10-8, thanks to terrific performances off the bench for Madelyn Farmer and Carlee Lunsford who each scored five in the period. Up 42-34 starting the fourth, the Raven defense slammed the door, putting WACO through a seven minute scoring drought to push the lead to 16 and get the win. Raven girls head coach Chris Nachtigall joined the KCII Postgame Show live to break down his teams effort.

Nachtigall said, “We have talked with the team this year a lot about mental and physical effort and not getting down when things aren’t going our way. Our girls have started to really buy into that. We really had to dig down defensively the whole game tonight. It’s just really fun to see them execute like that. Delaney Shaw comes up and hits a (big three), then Lydia Beachy as well. Claire (Withrow) is a really good shooter for us. It’s good to see our girls playing with confidence like that. Even though we didn’t score (at the start of the fourth quarter), our defensive effort was off the charts. WACO is a great rebounding team and we knew we were going to have to box out and our girls did a really good job of focusing on that tonight. When (your scoring), goes 12, 8, 12, 8, 10, it’s hard to figure out who you need to stop.

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A cool 753 career victories for Hillcrest Academy’s Dwight Gingerich