By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek boys put on a good performance during their first home basketball game of the season Tuesday.
H-BC entertained Pipestone-Jasper in what turned out to be a hard-fought game in Hills.
P-J, however, made some clutch free throws down the stretch to post a 64-57 win.
Neither team led by more than six points in the game before the Arrows found the mark from the charity stripe.
In the end, P-J outscored the Patriots 21-12 from the line, and that proved to be the difference in a seven-point decision.
"It was a pretty good ball game," said Patriot coach Steve Wiertzema. "A six-point lead was a big lead in this game. The difference was P-J was 13 of 16 from the line in the fourth quarter. We had to foul, and they made their free throws."
With Matt Buck leading the way, H-BC opened a six-point lead at one stage of the first quarter before settling for a 17-16 edge at period's end.
Buck, who had six rebounds in the contest, netted eight of his team-high 17 points in the first quarter.
P-J rallied to take a 31-27 halftime lead, but the Patriots bounced back to outscore the Arrows 15-12 in the third quarter to trim the difference to one point at 43-42.
H-BC never did take the lead in the fourth quarter, when P-J put the game away at the line.
Lance Crawford scored 10 points and pulled down six rebounds for the 0-3 Patriots, who play Southwest Star Concept in Okabena tomorrow before hosting Minneota Tuesday.
Box score
D.DeBoer 1 0 3-4 5, Van Batavia 0 0 1-2 1, Van Maanen 0 0 0-0 0, Fransman 0 1 3-3 6, Haak 1 0 2-5 4, Van Wyhe 3 0 0-0 6, Top 2 1 1-2 8, Crawford 5 0 0-0 10, Buck 6 1 2-3 17.
Team statistics
H-BC: 21 of 53 field goals (40 percent), 12 of 19 free throws (63 percent), 25 rebounds, nine turnovers.
P-J: 20 of 52 field goals (38 percent), 21 of 29 free throws (72 percent), 35 rebounds, eight turnovers.