By John Rittenhouse
Hills-Beaver Creek's ability to control the boards set the stage for a boys' basketball victory in Westbrook Tuesday.
The H-BC Patriots sported a 41-17 rebounding advantage in a game against the Westbrook-Walnut Grove Chargers.
With all the extra scoring opportunities their board work presented, the Patriots were able to nail down a 68-44 win.
The win extended H-BC's longest winning streak of the season to seven games. The Patriots, who have not lost a game in 2002, will host Mountain Lake-Butterfield Odin tomorrow before playing in Fulda Tuesday.
Rebounding was the difference in Tuesday's game against the Chargers. Matt Buck, Brad Haak and Lyle DeBoer led the assault on the boards by snaring 11, nine and eight rebounds respectively.
"Rebounding was the key," said Patriot coach Steve Wiertzema. "41-17 is pretty dominating on the boards. We were missing a lot of shots early, but we got some offensive rebounds and put them back in."
The Patriots scored the game's first eight points and withstood a run by W-WG to sport a 17-13 advantage at the end of the first quarter.
H-BC took control of the game in the second period, when it went on a 19-7 scoring run that gave it a 36-20 halftime lead.
W-WG trimmed the difference to 13 points (49-36) by the end of the third quarter, but the hosts were unable to seriously challenge the Patriots before falling by 14 points in the end.
Buck's night also featured 16 points and five assists.
Haak and David Top tossed in 14 and 13 points respectively.
Box score
Metzger 1 0 0-0 2, D.DeBoer 1 0 2-2 4, Rozeboom 1 0 0-0 2, Van Maanen 0 0 0-0 0, Haak 5 0 4-7 14, Leuthold 2 0 0-0 4, L.DeBoer 3 0 1-4 7, Van Wyhe 2 0 0-0 4, Top 4 0 5-7 13, Buck 6 0 4-6 16, Krull 1 0 0-0 2.
Team statistics
H-BC 26 of 69 field goals (38 percent), 16 of 26 free throws (62 percent), 41 rebounds, 12 turnovers.
W-WG: 22 of 58 field goals (38 percent), four of six free throws (67 percent), 17 rebounds, 10 turnovers.