Hills-Beaver Creek junior guard Zach Wysong puts up a shot over ML-B-O’s Grant Wahl during Thursday’s South Section 3A Boys’ Basketball Tournament semifinal game in Pipestone. H-BC upset No. 1 ML-B-O 49-41.By John RittenhouseThe Hills-Beaver Creek Patriots turned into giant-killers during Thursday’s South Section 3A Boys’ Basketball Tournament semifinals in Pipestone.Matched up against once-beaten Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin, H-BC put together an 8-0 run early in the second quarter to take a lead they would never relinquish on the way to a 49-41 victory over the Wolverines.The victory upped H-BC’s season record to 20-8, and it gave the Patriots their first berth in the tournament’s title game since 1998.The Patriots met Ellsworth, a 79-52 victor over Southwest Christian Thursday, in Saturday’s championship game at Southwest State University in Marshall. Look for the H-BC-Ellsworth game story elsewhere in the sports section.Fourth-seeded H-BC entered Thursday’s game against No. 1 ML-B-O as an underdog. The 23-1 Wolverines rolled to a 67-45 win over the Patriots when the teams met in Mountain Lake Jan. 16, and the seedings seemed to favor ML-B-O entering the contest.H-BC, however, played like it was the team expected to win.The Patriots limited ML-B-O’s high-scoring Mark DeYounge to three points in the first half while opening a seven-point halftime advantage, and they withstood every challenge the Wolverines offered in the second half in what ended as an eight-point win.Neither team could generate much offense when they scored a combined 13 points in the first quarter.ML-B-O scored the first two points of the game only to fall behind 4-2 when H-BC’s Kale Wiertzema converted a three-point play at the 3:23 mark of the period. The Wolverines outscored the Patriots 5-2 the rest of the period to take a 7-6 lead into the second quarter.The game turned to H-BC’s favor when the Patriots opened the second quarter with an 8-0 run. A field goal by Wiertzema at 4:47 capped the surge, which ended with the Patriots sporting a 14-7 cushion.ML-B-O scored the next five points to trail 14-12, but H-BC moved in front 20-12 when Tyler Bush ended a 6-0 spurt with a free throw at 1:25. The difference was seven points (21-14) at quarter’s end.The Wolverines scored the first five points of the third quarter, and trailed 23-22 after outscoring the Patriots 8-2 in the first 1:56 of the stanza.H-BC met the challenge by mounting a 10-2 run that ended with it leading 33-24 when Bush drained a free throw with 1:30 remaining in the third quarter.ML-B-O, which trailed 33-25 at the end of the third period, trimmed H-BC’s lead to four points twice (33-29 and 35-31) during the opening minutes of the final period.The Patriots countered with a 7-0 surge that left them with an 11-point lead (42-31) when Bush made a free throw with 1:11 remaining. ML-B-O did trim the difference to five points (46-41) with 13 seconds remaining, but the Patriots scored the final three points of the game to prevail by eight.Bush, who scored 13 points in the second half, led the Patriots with 19 points, 10 rebounds and five steals. Wiertzema scored eight points in the first half and ended the game with 14 counters. He also recorded seven rebounds and six assists.Box scoreBush 5 0 9-14 19, Wysong 0 1 1-2 4, Broesder 0 0 0-0 0, Wiertzema 4 1 3-7 14, Van Wyhe 2 0 4-4 8, Spykerboer 0 0 0-0 0, LeBoutillier 2 0 0-0 4.Team statisticsH-BC: 15 of 34 field goals (44 percent), 17 of 27 free throws (63 percent), 28 rebounds, 10 turnovers.ML-B-O: 16 of 45 field goals (36 percent), four of five free throws (80 percent), 16 rebounds.
