Lone Tree opened up their season and conference schedule with a 70-64 win over Hillcrest Academy, keeping the Ravens at arm’s length all night.
An 8-0 run midway through the first quarter gave Lone Tree a 10-2 lead and control of the game. The Lone Tree offense was using some quick passes and rotations of the ball in the half-court to find open shooters and get easy baskets.
Early on, Lone Tree looked inside to Cory Krueger who posted up for a shot or he worked on getting passes out to the perimeter.
“Our goal this year is to get out in transition and I thought we did a really good job of flying,” Lone Tree coach Tom Squiers said. “If we could have made 2-foot shots in the first quarter we would have been up 13-15 points.”
The first quarter ended with Hillcrest finding a basket from Kobe Borntrager and Aaron Hershberger to cut the Lone Tree lead to 13-6.
With 4:34 left in the first half, Alex Viner pushed the Lone Tree lead to 12 after a foul and the basket. The Ravens were kept alive in the game by a stellar performance from junior Eli Ours. Ours finished with 28 points on the day and hit four 3-pointers.
“Ours had 28, but we made him hit tough shots and work for everything he got,” Squiers said.
Despite the defensive pressure, Ours kept the Ravens’ chances alive with a 3-pointer as time wound down in the first half and then 16 points in the second half.
Right after half, Lone Tree pushed the lead back up to 12 points at 36-24 before the Ravens received a spark from Will Kolck off the bench. Kolck hit back-to-back baskets and then after a steal was fouled and made both. His five consecutive points closed the game to 36-29 with 4:50 left in the third quarter.
The Lions got their own bench spark from Tyler Bell as he finished with eight points, all in the second half.
“He’s a big physical kid that can finish at the basket. He did a really good job of rebounding and when he got the ball in the paint he scored,” Squiers said.
Harmon Miller scored all 10 of his points in the second half, including draining a pair of 3-pointers.
Lone Tree pushed the lead to their biggest with 3:50 remaining in the game at 63-49 before Hillcrest Academy ramped up the full-court pressure.
“I really liked our effort late and it was good to see some things come together,” Hillcrest Academy Coach Dwight Gingerich said. “We clearly dug ourselves into a hole, and simply gave up too many transition opportunities, offensive rebounds and open looks.”
With around one minute to go, the Ravens had cut the lead to just four points after Noah Miller and London Schrock had back-to-back three-point plays and then Ours and Miller scored again.
The Hillcrest Academy press had doubled Edwards after inbounding and trapped the next player, often forcing a turnover.
“I thought we would handle presses better, but we just kind of got silly with the basketball,” Squiers said.
So instead of passing off the ball, Edwards split the double team and took the ball himself. He immediately drove to the basket and was fouled but made the layup. His free throw pushed the game back to a six-point lead and sealed the game.
“I just blocked everything out. I thought I would take it for myself and knew I could do it. I had confidence and I got fouled, threw it up there and it went in,” Edwards said.
Edwards led all scorers with 30 points and finished with 12 rebounds and five assists.
Lone Tree finished 9-13 from the free-throw line in the game. They shot just 55% as a team last season, and Squiers said it was good to see an improvement there.
Lone Tree moved to 1-0 and Hillcrest Academy 0-1.
Lone Tree 63, Iowa Valley 34
Lone Tree dominated a non-conference matchup with Iowa Valley to win 63-34. The Lions did the majority of their damage in the middle two quarters, outscoring Iowa Valley 41-12 in the second and third quarters.
Keegan Edwards had 19 points, six rebounds and four assists in the win. Harmon Miller reached double figures for the second game in a row at 12 points. Cory Krueger had four points and 11 rebounds.
The Lions are 2-0 with the win.

Keota 75, Lone Tree 57
Lone Tree gave up 28 first quarter points to Keota and stayed behind for the rest of the contest, losing 75-57.
Harmon Miller had his best scoring outing of the year, dropping 20 points on 7-13 shooting. He was on fire from deep making six-of-eight 3-pointers.
Keota went to the free-throw line 19 times compared to just seven for the Lions. JD Stout had 38 points for the Eagles, going 14-21 from the field in the win.
Lone Tree had the advantage on the boards 33-29 including eight offensive rebounds.