KALONA

Hillcrest Academy’s Malia Yoder and Claire Withrow had never seen a conference win.

Not in basketball.

On the second night of the new year, Jan. 2, Yoder and Withrow combined to score 43 points and led the Ravens into girls hoops history. Hillcrest’s 56-48 win against Winfield-Mount Union marked the school’s first Southeast Iowa Super Conference victory since February 2020 and technically just its second conference win of all time.

Hillcrest Academy, formerly known as Iowa Mennonite School, rebranded itself in 2019. Since then, the Ravens had only won one conference game in girls basketball.

But now the Ravens are on a bit of a roll.

Their four wins so far this season are the most the Ravens have had in five seasons. The win over W-MU was the second in a row.

“We’re getting there,” said head coach Mitchell Drey. “One step at a time. There’s a lot of good teams in our conference. To get a win on anybody, it’s tough.”

Yoder, a junior who has started every game in three seasons, scored a career-high 23 points and Withrow, a sophomore who has started every game in two seasons, scored 20.

Yoder added a game-high 8 steals and also had 10 offensive rebounds.

Niva Helmuth, a sophomore, added 9 rebounds and 8 points.

Hillcrest took a 40-28 lead by the end of the third quarter, then held on for its first win over the Wolves since 2018.

Columbus 44,

Hillcrest 11

Lily Coil scored a game-high 15 points and Ariana Vergara scored 12, powering Columbus to a 33-point win over the Ravens on Jan. 5.

Malia Yoder and Lydia Beachy each scored 3 points for Hillcrest.

Columbus (10-3) scored the first 13 points of the game and built a 29-5 lead by halftime.

Coil, who ranks among the top five in the SEISC North in points, assists, rebounds and steals, had 15 rebounds and 9 steals. She fell short of a triple-double by just one steal.

GAME STATS

HILLCREST 56, WINFIELD-MT. UNION 48

W-MU     10    8    10   20  --  48

Hillcrest   16    8    16   16  --  56

Hillcrest scoring: Malia Yoder 23, Claire Withrow 20, Niva Helmuth 8, Delaney Shaw 3, Lydia Beachy 2.

Hillcrest rebounding leaders: Yoder 10, Helmuth 9, Shaw 7.

COLUMBUS 44, HILLCREST 11

Hillcrest        4     1    2    4  --  11

Columbus   19   10  13   2  --  44

Hillcrest scoring: Malia Yoder 3, Lydia Beachy 3, Niva Helmuth 2, Maria Portillo 2, Delaney Shaw 1.

Columbus scoring: Lily Coil 15, Ariana Vergara 12, Aracely Garza 6, Isabel Rendon 4, Frannie Sosa 3, Iris Garza 2, Madeleine Howell 2.