Hillcrest Academy played hard Feb. 20 against Highland, but a 7-0 Huskie run in the second quarter proved the difference in the 47-36 game as Highland advanced in the district playoffs and the Ravens’ season came to an end.

“We played hard throughout, but struggled to consistently score,” Hillcrest coach Dwight Gingerich said after the game.

The Hillcrest game plan called for preventing 6-foot, 8-inch Zack Lasek from dominating the game.

“I thought John Hughes and Aaron Hershberger did a nice job guarding him,” Gingerich said.

“Overall defensively, we did a solid job, but simply turned it over a few too many times and missed too many shots,” the coach said.

Gingerich said Highland took away some of Hillcrest’s offense with its defense.

“They had Eli Ours covered up pretty well, and Lasek inside at 6-foot, 8-inches affected a number of our shots around the basket,” he said.

Ours ended the game with 12 points, and Kobe Borntrager, who was battling a cough, was aggressive until the end with a steal and conversion to cut the Huskie lead to seven in the final minutes. Borntrager ended the game with 10 points.

The Ravens finished the season with an 11-10 record, a record all the more notable after Hillcrest went 4-6 for the first part of the season. Following a second loss to Lone Tree, the Ravens went 7-3 in the second half.

“To go 7-3 over the last 10 games, including wins over teams that defeated us the first time through conference play, was a great accomplishment and a testament to the commitment the guys made to continue to improve every day,” Gingerich said.

Things look good for the Ravens in the coming year. Borntrager and Drew Blauvelt will graduate, but the rest of the team should return including leading scorer Eli Ours who averaged over 18 points a game.