Hills-Beaver Creek junior guard Tyler Bush drives the lane to score two of his nine points during a 60-57 overtime win over Adrian Saturday in Worthington. The Patriots earned a shot at No. 1 ML-B-O in the Section 3A semifinals tonight in Pipestone with the victory over the Dragons.By John RittenhouseThe Hills-Beaver Creek boys’ basketball team advanced to the semifinal round of the South Section 3A tournament by posting an overtime win over Adrian Saturday in Worthington.H-BC beat Adrian in two tight games in the regular season, and the squads delivered another highly competitive battle during Saturday’s tournament quarterfinals in Worthington.It looked like fifth-seeded Adrian might avenge its regular season losses to the fourth-seeded Patriots when the Dragons sported a 50-46 cushion with 1:05 left in the fourth quarter. H-BC, however, rallied to knot the score at 50 by the end of regulation play and canned eight of 12 free throws in overtime to post a 60-57 win over the Dragons.The win ups H-BC’s record to 19-8 heading into tonight’s semifinals in Pipestone. The Patriots play 23-1 Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin, the tournament’s No. 1 seed, at 6 p.m.Adrian’s 16-7 season comes to an end.The Dragons were in a position to extend their campaign when they opened a seven-point lead in the third quarter before settling for a 42-37 advantage at period’s end.H-BC battled back to tie the game at 46 when Kale Wiertzema sank a three-point shot at the 2:06 mark of the fourth quarter, Adrian’s Casey Knips scored three straight points before Brandon Wolf sank a free throw with 1:05 remaining to give the Dragons a 50-46 lead.Wiertzema, who led the Patriots with 27 points and nine rebounds, drew H-BC within two points (50-48) of the Dragons with a field goal at the 1:00 mark before Trey Van Wyhe hit a field goal with 40 seconds left to tie the game at 50.Adrian held the ball in an attempt to set up a potential game-winning shot at the end of regulation play, but H-BC limited the Dragons to a long, one-handed attempt by Wolf that didn’t draw iron as time expired.Wiertzema hit H-BC’s only field goal of the overtime period 19 seconds into the stanza to give the Patriots a 52-50 lead they would never relinquish.Wiertzema hit two free throws at 1:23 to make it a 55-50 game, but Adrian rallied with a 7-4 surge and trailed 59-57 when Wolf hit a field goal with 33 seconds left.Wiertzema added a free throw to H-BC’s total with 26.6 seconds remaining to make it a three-point difference. Adrian’s Wolf and David Brake got off potential game-tying three-point attempts in the final 12 seconds, but neither shot found the mark.The game was tied at four early in the first quarter when H-BC went on an 8-0 run capped by a field goal by Tom LeBoutillier to give the Patriots a 12-4 lead with 3:25 remaining. Adrian countered with a 9-0 run that ended with Casey Knips draining a field goal with 16 seconds left to give the Dragons a 13-12 edge heading into the second quarter.The score was deadlocked at 18 in the second quarter when the Patriots put together a 10-2 run that ended with Tyler Bush hitting a three-point shot at the 1:20 mark of the period, giving H-BC a 28-20 lead.Adrian scored four of the next six points and trailed 30-24 when Nick Weidert converted a layup with three seconds left in the first half.The Dragons opened the third quarter with a 12-0 run to take a 36-30 lead that swelled to seven points (38-31) when Casey Knips scored from close range with 2:13 remaining in the third quarter. H-BC trimmed the difference to three points (38-35) with a three-point shot by Wiertzema at the 1:36 mark of the stanza before Adrian ended the period with a 4-2 spurt that gave it a 42-37 lead at period’s end.Van Wyhe added 12 points to the winning cause. Bush charted eight assists, seven rebounds and four steals. LeBoutiller clutched seven rebounds and blocked two shots.Kyle and Casey Knips netted 17 and 13 points respectively for Adrian. Brake and Wolf netted 11 and 10 points. Casey Knips pulled down a game-high 17 rebounds. Brett Block passed for six assists. Wolf came away with three steals.Box scoreAdrianWolf 2 1 3-4 10, Klaassen 0 0 0-0 0, Block 2 0 0-0 4, Weidert 1 0 0-0 2, K.Knips 8 0 1-3 17, D.Brake 4 1 0-0 11, C.Knips 6 0 1-2 13.H-BCBush 3 1 0-0 9, Wysong 1 1 2-2 7, Broesder 0 0 0-0 0, Wiertzema 6 2 9-10 27, Van Wyhe 4 0 4-6 12, Spykerboer 0 0 0-0 0, LeBoutillier 2 0 1-2 5.Team statisticsAdrian: 25 of 56 field goals (45 percent), five of nine free throws (56 percent), 32 rebounds, 11 turnovers.H-BC: 20 of 47 field goals (43 percent), 16 of 23 free throws (70 percent), 28 rebounds, 11 turnovers.
