RIVERSIDE 

Amidst all the blizzard, wind chill, and winter storm warnings, the Highland Girls and Boys Basketball teams still found time for the second meeting with the Hillcrest Academy Ravens of the 2023-24 season, this time in Riverside. 

In a game that was already postponed from January 9th to January 11th due to the pesky winter weather conditions, it was the home Huskies that pounced early. 

Leaping out to a 16-9 lead after the first quarter, and growing that lead to 12 by halftime, the Huskie girls had enough cushion on their lead to peg another win in their 2023-24 resume, beating the Ravens by a final of 47-38 to earn the season sweep.

“We are starting to get some balance in the scorebook and having different people step up each game.” Highland coach Jody Fink said. “We had our times with good ball movement. If we can stop shooting ourselves in the foot at times and relax, be patient, then we will help ourselves out a ton.”

The weather outside the Highland High School gym was not enough to slow down Senior Sarah Burton, as she led her team with 20 points. 

The double-double machine added another to her list this season as well, as Burton also had 22 rebounds and nabbed six steals, the team lead. 

On the season she has 166 defensive rebounds, the most among all classes. 

Off the bench, Sophomore Mackenzie Davis had a career-best night with 14 points. Senior forward Stella Slaymaker had six points, six rebounds, and four assists.

“We are starting to get some balance in the scorebook and having different people step up each game,” coach Fink said. “Makenzie Davis had a great game offensively and defensively at the top of our zone. I really like how she is coming along and is going to be a huge factor down the line.”

“We are getting down near the end of the season with a lot of games yet to play. We will continue to work on improvement and moving forward.”

Junior Malia Yoder and sophomore Claire Withrow both scored 17 to lead the Ravens in the conference loss. Junior Delaney Shaw brought down a team high seven rebounds. 

In the boys contest, it was the visiting Ravens that got the best of the Huskies to take the season sweep, winning by a final score of 65-27. 

The Ravens winning streak over the Huskies stretches to eight in a row, with Highland’s last win over Hillcrest coming in 2020. 

“Good effort from our guys,” Hillcrest coach Dwight Gingerich said after the game.  “Happy to get out of here with a W.” 

Hillcrest only had one quarter where they did not score over 18 points as a team. 

The Ravens held the lead for the entire duration of this game, scoring 60 points before the Huskies reached 20.  

Hillcrest averages 54.6 points per game and this was the seventh time this season the Ravens have scored 60 or more points.

Senior Center Nicolas Oriano did find a groove, however, scoring 9 points to pace all Huskies. Seven of Oriano’s points came in the fourth quarter. 

With this loss Highland remains winless in conference play with a 0-9 record while the Ravens improve their conference record to 6-3. 

Mason Bender led Hillcrest with a monster 20 points and tied for the team lead in rebounds with six. Seth Ours, a Hillcrest junior, scored 18 and led the team with four steals.