Hills-Beaver Creek guard Tyler Bush puts up a shot in traffic during Saturday’s South Section 3A Tournament game in Worthington. Edgerton upset the Patriots 72-70.
By John Rittenhouse
Edgerton High School senior Zach Hadler built some relationships with Hills-Beaver students as a member of the Luverne-H-BC-Ellsworth-Edgerton cross country program last fall.
But he didn’t make many friends at H-BC with his performance in Saturday’s quarterfinal-round game of the South Section 3A Boys’ Basketball Tournament in Worthington.
Hadler, a guard for the Flying Dutchmen, drained a 15-foot jumper with two seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to give seventh-seeded EHS a 72-70 victory over No. 2 H-BC.
Edgerton’s win, which came after two losses to H-BC during the regular season, sends it to the tournament semifinals tonight in Worthington. EHS plays No. 3 Southwest Christian, a 60-46 winner over Red Rock Central, at 7:30 p.m.
H-BC ends the year with a 19-6 record.
With Hadler leading the way by scoring 19 points, Edgerton pulled off the tournament’s biggest upset to date knocking off H-BC. The game was competitive from beginning to end, with Edgerton settling the issue with Hadler’s late blow.
Edgerton sported a 54-47 lead when it converted a three-point lead early in the fourth quarter, but it seemed to lose its grip on the game when H-BC’s Kale Wiertzema drained a pair of free throws at the 4:01 mark of the period to cap a 9-2 run that knotted the score at 56.
The game was tied at 58 when Edgerton started a 10-5 surge that gave it a 68-63 cushion with 1:11 left to play, but the Patriots battled back to tie the game at 70 when Wiertzema converted a field goal with 9.5 seconds remaining.
After an Edgerton timeout, Hadler received the in-bound pass and dribbled the ball past the half-court line before being met with pressure by H-BC. Hadler proceeded to move the ball to the right baseline, where he stopped and hit a jumper with two seconds left.
H-BC took a timeout and set up a play that ended up with the ball in the hands of senior Tyson Metzger near center court, but his desperation shot clanked off the backboard without hitting the rim.
Both teams sported three-point leads in the early stages of the first quarter before H-BC moved in front 15-11 with a field goal from Trey Van Wyhe with 1:00 mark.
Edgerton trimmed the difference to one point (17-16) by period’s end, and tied the game at 19 before going on a 7-0 run to take a 26-19 lead early in the second quarter.
The Flying Dutchmen led by nine (34-25) with 2:26 left in the first half, but the Patriots sliced the margin to six points (36-30) when Zach Wysong sank a pair of free throws in the final minute of the first half.
Edgerton scored the first three points of the third quarter before H-BC started an 8-2 run capped by a free throw from Tyler Bush at the 4:58 mark of the period to bring the Patriots within three points (41-38) of the Flying Dutchmen. Edgerton’s lead swelled to seven points later in the period, but Van Wyhe converted a field goal with six seconds left to trim Edgerton’s lead to four points (51-47) heading into the fourth quarter.
Metzger scored a game-high 24 points for H-BC. Wiertzema (17 points and 11 assists) and Van Wyhe (13 points and 10 rebounds) registered double-doubles for H-BC. Bush charted seven assists.
Box score
Bush 1 0 3-4 5, Wysong 0 0 4-4 4, Roozenboom 0 0 1-2 1, Wiertzema 1 4 3-4 17, Metzger 4 5 1-2 24, Leuthold 3 0 0-0 6, Van Wyhe 6 0 1-5 13.
Team statistics
H-BC: 24 of 48 field goals (50 percent), 13 of 21 free throws (62 percent), 21 rebounds, eight turnovers.
Edgerton: 29 of 55 field goals (53 percent), seven of 12 free throws (58 percent), 23 rebounds, nine turnovers.
