A steal and layup for senior Cole Baker (31 points and 10 rebounds) put the H-BC boys’ basketball team up 18-17 over Adrian-Ellsworth with 7:32 to go in the first half, and they would lead the rest of the way to a 72-61 victory Friday night in Hills.
Baker started off the scoring with a steal and a layup on his way to scoring the Patriots’ first 12 points of the game. Adrian-Ellsworth still managed to sport a 15-12 advantage as a timeout was taken by Coach Wiertzema. The home team came out of the time out hot as they went on an 18-10 run over the next seven minutes capped off by a three-pointer by Drew Leenderts (14 points) to give the Patriots a 30-25 lead. Baker finished his remarkable 22-point first half with another steal and layup as the Patriots led 36-27 at half.
The Pates started to pull away with 11 minutes left in the game as Oliver Deelstra (13 points) hit a three from the right wing to give them a 52-39 lead. The lead got as high as 16 before the Dragons went on an 11-0 run to cut the lead to 58-53 with six minutes remaining. An offensive rebound by Deelstra and layup by Leenderts with two minutes to go ultimately put them away for good as the Patriots came away with a 72-61 victory.
Box score
Baker 10 1 8-13 31, Raymon 3 0 2-4 8, Harnack 0 0 0-0 0, Page 0 0 0-2 0, Leenderts 4 2 0-0 14, Bundesen 0 0 1-2 0, Gehrke 0 0 0-0 0, Metzger 0 0 0-0 0, Taubert 0 0 0-0 0, Tatge 0 0 0-0 0, Durst 1 0 0-0 2, Scholten 0 0 0-0 0, Harris 1 0 1-2 3, Wiersema 0 0 0-0 0
Team statistics
HBC: 26 of 54 (48 percent), 16 for 25 free throws (64 percent), 33 rebounds, 19 turnovers
A-E: 20 of 51 (39 percent), 18 for 23 free throws (78 percent), 25 rebounds, 21 turnovers