Ravens claim SEISC North Title with road conference win over Lions

LONE TREE

Hillcrest (17-2, SEISC 15-1) claimed the Southeast Iowa Super Conference North Division Championship for the second consecutive year after scoring a 85-61 road win over Lone Tree (4-14, 2-13) on Feb. 3.

The Ravens scored a season high in the win as they went for 20 or more points in three of the four quarters. Hillcrest was led by senior Rowan Miller (31), junior Kale Bailey (20), and sophomore Gibson Scott (20) who all scored 20 or more points. 

“When you have three guys in double figures, any nights good. And then when it’s three with 20 or more,” Hillcrest coach Stephen Bender said.

“And the nice thing about it is, I knew that those guys had pretty good offensive games, but I had no idea that, it was just a quiet 31, I had no idea Rowan had 31 points. He stacked those assists up tonight too. He got his teammates the basketball and just an all around great effort from him tonight.”

Miller paired his season high 31 points along with a team high eight assists. The senior reached his point total by going 12/16 from the field, with two of his baskets being 3-pointers, and going 5/6 from the free throw line.

“I’m not sure what I thought I had. But then after the game we got a picture for conference champions and a couple of the teammates mentioned 31 and I asked who had 31 and then they told me that I did,” Miller said. “So that was a pleasant surprise to me, it’s a fun one.”

Lone Tree came out the gate being able to match the offensive play of Hillcrest, only trailing by four after one quarter, but as the game progressed the divide began to widen to a point where they entered the final frame trailing by 20. 

“At times it looked really good. There’s definitely room for improvement. 85 points, you can’t complain about that,: coach Bender said. “But we turned the ball over way too many times, and as we get going here into the postseason, we’re going to have to value the ball a lot more than we did tonight.”

Lone Tree, on senior night, was led by its seniors Reece Holbrook (18), Gray Spilman (13), and Domonic Garcia (12) who all scored in the double digits.

Burlington Notre Dame 86, Hillcrest 58

In a battle of conference leading teams, the visiting Ravens (17-3) from the North division were defeated by No. 3 Burlington Notre Dame (20-1) of the South division last Saturday as part of the SEISC shootout.

Hillcrest faced a tough challenge against the Nikes but were keeping up through two quarters, only trailing by six at the half, but the third quarter is where Burlington ND took control by going on a 24-8 run to take a 22 point advantage into the final frame where they eventually won by 28. 

Burlington ND senior Eli Oleson led all scorers with 24 points and fellow senior teammate Shay Stephens added 20.

The Ravens were led by Lincoln Miller (15), Rowan Miller (12), and Gibson Scott (12) all scoring in the double digits. 

HILLCREST 85, LONE TREE 61

Hillcrest        20    24    22    17 -- 85

Lone Tree      16     13    17    15 --  61

Hillcrest leading scorers: Rowan Miller 31, Gibson Scott 20, Kale Bailey 20

Hillcrest leading rebounders: Lincoln Miller 8, Scott 8, Bailey 7

Lone tree leading scorers: Reece Holbrook 18, Gray Spilman 13, Domonic Garcia 12

Lone Tree leading rebounders: Holbrook 7, Owen Eden 2, Spilman 2

HILLCREST 58, BURLINGTON ND 86

Hillcrest               15      16    8     19 -- 58

Burlington ND      20     17    24    25 --  86

Hillcrest leading scorers: Lincoln Miller 15, Rowan Miller 12, Gibson Scott 12

Hillcrest leading rebounders: Kale Bailey 5, Scott 4, Rowan Miller 3