HILLCREST ACADEMY BOYS BASKETBALL

699 wins for Hillcrest Academy's Dwight Gingerich

Ravens' 74-37 victory over Columbus brings legendary coach within 1 win of magical 700

By Paul D. Bowker
Posted 12/10/21

KALONA

Blink, and you would have missed it.

Hillcrest Academy boys basketball coach Dwight Gingerich, who is on the edge of Iowa basketball history, didn’t dare blink.

Trailing 6-2 in …

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HILLCREST ACADEMY BOYS BASKETBALL

699 wins for Hillcrest Academy's Dwight Gingerich

Ravens' 74-37 victory over Columbus brings legendary coach within 1 win of magical 700

Posted

KALONA

Blink, and you would have missed it.

Hillcrest Academy boys basketball coach Dwight Gingerich, who is on the edge of Iowa basketball history, didn’t dare blink.

Trailing 6-2 in the early minutes of its Southeast Iowa Super Conference game Thursday night against Columbus, Hillcrest launched a dizzying speed attack that sparked a 12-0 run and an eventual 74-37 victory.

After spotting the Wildcats a 4-point lead, Hillcrest outscored Columbus 27-2 for the remainder of the first quarter on an inside-outside offense by junior forward Grant Bender and a suffocating trap defense that often had the Ravens score a turnover and basket seconds after they had already scored.

Watching happily from the bench was Gingerich, who secured his 699th career win.

Saturday, the Ravens can hand Gingerich an historic 700th victory against Rivermont Collegiate on the home court that already has Gingerich’s name painted on it.

But you won’t catch this humble coach even talking about that milestone above a whisper.

“It’s not something I spend very much time thinking about, but it is on the horizon,” Gingerich said.

Gingerich, who is now the school principal at Hillcrest, began as a coach at HIllcrest in 1981 when it was Iowa Mennonite School. He has been a teacher, a guidance counselor and athletics director at the school. But he never strayed from the basketball court, where Gingerich coached Iowa Mennonite to a state championship in 1992. Since 1988, the school has appeared in 12 state tournaments.

Gingerich’s hand is clearly on his current team. After losing their season opener to Mediapolis, the Ravens have won consecutive games against Wapello, Louisa-Muscatine and Columbus.

Bender scored a game-high 23 points on Thursday as the Ravens hit a season high in points scored. He had plenty of help from senior guard Noah Miller, junior guard Luke Schrock and freshman Seth Ours, among others.

“Noah Miller did a really nice job of pushing the break,” Gingerich said. “He got into the lane with penetration, made some nice passes. Grant was slashing, making some plays on the baseline. Defensively, Luke Schrock did a lot of good things for us.”

When Bender hit a long 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded to end the opening quarter, he danced to the bench, twirling his hands above his head to celebrate.

“I feel like we’re just getting a lot more people involved with good balance, seeing everybody’s production. They’re finding their role within the team grow,” Gingerich said.

Hillcrest 62

L-M 35

Senior guard Luke Schrock scored a season-high 18 points in Hillcrest’s victory over Louisa-Muscatine.

Trailing 8-5 after one quarter, Hillcrest went on a 17-4 run in the second quarter. The Ravens scored 57 points over the last three quarters.

Schrock also had a game-high 8 assists and a game-high 7 rebounds.

Senior guard Noah Miller added 11 points and six assists, and junior forward Grant Bender had 10 points and three steals.

Hillcrest forced Louisa-Muscatine into 22 turnovers.

Dawson Downing, a sophomore, led L-M with 10 points.

GAME STATS

 

HILLCREST 74, COLUMBUS 37

Columbus       8      14     11     4    --  37

Hillcrest         29     12     21   12     --  74

HILLCREST SCORING: Grant Bender 23, Seth Ours 11, Luke Schrock 11, Josiah Beachy 9, Noah Miller 8, Aiden Krabill 6, Bryce Bailey 4, Mason Bender 2.

HILLCREST REBOUNDING LEADERS: Grant Bender 9, Miller 7, Schrock 7.

 

HILLCREST 62, LOUISA-MUSCATINE 35

Hillcrest       5      17     18     22    --  62

L-M         8    4   11      12     --  35

HILLCREST SCORING: Luke Schrock 18, Noah Miller 11, Grant Bender 10, Seth Ours 9, Josiah Beachy 9, Bryce Bailey 3, Aiden Krabill 2.

HILLCREST REBOUNDING LEADERS: Schrock 7, Miller 5.

LOUISA-MUSCATINE SCORING: Dawson Downing 10, Jesse Reinier 8, Dru Raisbeck 5, Xander Bieri 4, Finnegan Cline 4, Chris Day 2, Dominic Solis 2.

Hillcrest Academy, basketball, Dwight Gingerich, Iowa