Comets heat up early, down Ravens

CARDINAL - A fast start by the Cardinal boys basketball team helped it take a double-digit lead throughout most of the Southeast Iowa Super Conference crossover game Tuesday, but the Comets had to hold off a late Hillcrest rush to win 70-62.

Cardinal closed the first quarter on a 12-0 run to lead 23-10. Hillcrest battled back in the second quarter to cut the Comets lead to 41-31 at the half.

Hillcrest had it's worst quarter in the third with just six points and Cardinal jumped out to a 52-37 with 8 minutes to go.

Hillcrest made a furious run at it in the fourth. The Ravens scored a game-high 25 points in the final period, but they couldn't overcome the hosts.

Cardinal was led by Blaine Bryant, who had 25 points, including an incredible 6-for-6 from 3-point land. He led the team with six steals. Dawson Lewis added 19 points and eight rebounds. Griffin Greiner had 10 points and six assists. Elias Elammari scored nine, Ian Liles five. Keysean Moore finished with two points and six assists.

Eli Ours led Hillcrest with 18 points, five assists and four steals. John Hughes had 16 and Aaron Hershberger ended the night with nine points and five rebounds. Noah Miller scored seven points. Aiden Krabill had six. Luke Schrock scored four, and Grant Bender had two.

Cardinal is now 3-2 overall. They'll put their 1-2 conference mark on the line when they host Van Buren County (0-5, 0-4) on Friday night.

Hillcrest is 2-3 overall and 2-2 in the North Diviison. The Ravens will host Pekin (5-1, 4-1) on Friday.

'We made progress, and at the same time still hurt ourselves by giving up offensive rebounds and allowing them to convert our turnovers into points.,”Hillcrest coach Dwight Gingerich said.”Once we take care of those problem areas, we will fare much better. It was good to see us push the break more, and overall, there was a better flow at both ends of the floor.”