By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek boys opened the 2002-03 basketball season by hosting Pipestone Area in Hills Tuesday.
The Patriots fell behind early against the visiting Arrows and were unable to rally in what ended as a 60-46 setback.
Pipestone scored the first 10 points of the contest and led 14-6 at the end of the first quarter.
The Arrows used a 21-13 scoring advantage in the second quarter to open a 35-19 halftime lead, and extended the difference to 19 points (50-31) by the end of the third quarter.
H-BC battled back to outscore Pipestone 15-10 in the final eight minutes of play, but it wasn’t enough to seriously challenge the Arrows.
"We battled with them after their initial fast start," said Patriot coach Steve Wiertzema. "I was pleased with the way we played. We just had a few too many turnovers and missed too many easy shots."
Kale Wiertzema led the Patriots in the opener by scoring 18 points.
Senior Jesse Leuthold pulled down 12 rebounds, while Tyson Metzger and Trey Van Wyhe collected seven and six rebounds respectively.
Tyler Bush had four assists and four steals for an H-BC team that didn’t match up well against a powerful Arrow squad.
"Pipestone is a pretty physical team. We just are not that physical yet," Wiertzema said.
The Patriots host Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster tomorrow and Central Lyon Saturday.
Box score
Bush 0 0 1-3 1, Wysong 1 0 1-2 3, Roozeboom 2 0 0-0 4, Wiertzema 2 2 8-11 18, Metzger 2 0 0-1 4, Leuthold 3 0 2-2 8, Van Wyhe 3 0 2-3 8.
Team statistics
H-BC: 15 of 56 field goals (27 percent), 14 of 22 free throws (64 percent), 32 rebounds, 22 turnovers.
Pipestone: 23 of 49 field goals (47 percent), 11 of 12 free throws (92 percent), 30 rebounds, 23 turnovers.