By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek boys’ basketball team had little trouble recording its 12th Red Rock Conference victory of the season Friday in Round Lake.
The Patriots outscored the Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster Raiders by 19 points in the first three quarters of play to set the stage for a 68-49 win.
Along with giving the Patriots their 12th straight RRC victory, H-BC extended its longest winning streak of the season to seven straight games with the win.
Strong second and third quarters by the Patriots proved to be the difference in the game.
H-BC led 15-13 after eight minutes of play before outscoring the Raiders 19-12 in the second quarter to make it a 34-25 game at the intermission.
The Patriots padded their lead to 19 points (43-34) with a 19-9 scoring advantage in the third quarter, and they protected the lead by playing the Raiders to a draw at 15 in the fourth quarter.
Tyson Metzger recorded a double-double to lead the Patriots to victory. Metzger, who had four assists in the contest, scored 22 points and charted 10 rebounds. He made eight of 16 field goals in the game.
Kale Wiertzema, who was nine of 10 at the charity stripe, added 18 points and nine assists to the winning cause.
Trey Van Wyhe canned six of nine shots during a 15-point performance. Jesse Leuthold collected 10 rebounds and blocked a pair of shots, and Tyler Bush contributed nine assists and four steals to the winning effort.
Box score
Bush 0 0 0-0 0, Wysong 0 0 0-0 0, Jackson 0 0 0-0 0, Roozenboom 0 0 2-2 2, Broesder 0 0 2-2 2, Wiertzema 3 1 9-10 18, Metzger 5 3 3-6 22, Leuthold 3 0 3-5 9, Van Wyhe 6 0 3-4 15, Spykerboer 0 0 0-0 0.
Team statistics
H-BC: 21 of 45 field goals (47 percent), 22 of 29 free throws (76 percent), 29 rebounds, 11 turnovers.
SV-RL-B: 20 of 48 field goals (42 percent), two of five free throws (40 percent), 20 rebounds, 11 turnovers.
