Hughes leads Ravens with 14 points in loss at Pekin

By Jeff Yoder
Posted 12/21/21

The Hillcrest girls basketball went on a run in each half, but couldn’t come back from an early deficit in a 36-21 loss at Pekin on Friday. 

The Ravens struggled on both ends of the …

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Hughes leads Ravens with 14 points in loss at Pekin

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The Hillcrest girls basketball went on a run in each half, but couldn’t come back from an early deficit in a 36-21 loss at Pekin on Friday. 

The Ravens struggled on both ends of the floor as Pekin scored the first 14 points of the game and led 14-2 after the first quarter. 

“They’ve got a really good 2-3 zone, and they’re really good at forcing everything out of the paint,” Hillcrest coach Mitchell Drey said. “We got a lot of clean looks in the first quarter. Norah, Malia, and Esther all got some clean looks and they just didn’t fall for us.”

After falling behind 17-2 in the second quarter, the Ravens and Lady Panthers played even at 19-19 over the rest of the game. 

“Pekin’s girls did a good job playing with their hands,” Drey said. “I think we started expecting that contact, and once we started playing through it and looking for that contact, we got some fouls then we started playing from inside out. It was good from there.”

Esther Hughes had all eight of the Raven points in the first half and cut the 15-point lead to 11 with a pair of baskets before halftime. She also scored the first five points of the fourth quarter and finished with 14. 

“Everyone knows she’s going to kind of be a focal point,” Drey said.  “In the first half, she does a great job trying to get her teammates involved, and we got some good looks off of passes from her and the shots didn’t fall. But she does a good job kind of sensing when she needs to go. 

“We only scored eight points, but the eight points that she got were all timely. They broke up a run for them or kind of started a defensive stand for us. So it was just nice to have her out there.”

Hughes also had a team-high nine rebounds and four steals. 

The Ravens trailed 32-12 after three quarters when Hughes hit a 3-pointer to start an 8-0 run. Malia Yoder hit a shot to cap the run and cut the lead to 12. She hit a 3-pointer in the third quarter and finished with five points and five rebounds.

Leah Bontrager made a pair of free throws in the second half to round out the scoring for the Ravens. Bontrager also had four rebounds

Freshman Lydia Beachy had three assists and three steals.

The Ravens held Pekin to just 6-of-29 shooting on 2-point field goals, but the Lady Panthers scored 21 points from the 3-point line. 

Senior Makenzie Dahlstrom was 4-of-5 from outside to lead Pekin with 12 points.