By John Rittenhouse
Hills-Beaver Creek nearly pulled off a big upset during a boys' basketball game against Southwest Christian in Edgerton Tuesday.
Taking on the three-time defending state champions on their home floor, H-BC stunned the Eagles by taking a five-point lead in the fourth quarter.
The Patriots led by three and had possession of the ball with 2:30 remaining in the game.
SWC, however, outscored the Patriots by eight points the rest of the night to pull out a 59-54 victory.
Considering the Patriots were playing without injured regulars Matt Buck and Brad Haak, the teamÕs effort was a surprising one.
If H-BC wouldn't have turned the ball over 29 times in the game, the Patriots might have knocked off the mighty Eagles.
"The kids played hard," said Patriot coach Steve Wiertzema. "We're missing two starters, but this probably is the best weÕve played them in their place in a long time. We had a chance. We were right there, but we had too many turnovers."
H-BC bounced back from a 19-16 deficit in the first quarter by outscoring SWC 14-11 in the second period to knot the score at 30 by halftime.
The Eagles led 43-42 heading into the fourth quarter, when they overcame H-BC's five-point lead to win by five points.
David Top scored 17 points, collected eight rebounds and passed for four assists during the game. Lyle DeBoer added 11 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals.
Trey Van Wyhe added 10 points to H-BC's cause. Darin DeBoer had three steals and four assists, and Jesse Leuthold had six rebounds and three steals.
The 12-8 Patriots will wrap up the regular season by hosting Edgerton tomorrow and playing in Ellsworth Monday.
Box score
D.DeBoer 2 0 0-0 4, Roozenboom 1 0 0-0 2, Van Maanen 1 0 2-2 4, Leuthold 3 0 0-0 6, L.DeBoer 5 0 1-2 11, Van Wyhe 4 0 2-2 10, Top 6 0 5-8 17.
Team statistics
H-BC: 22 of 39 field goals (56 percent), 10 of 14 free throws (71 percent), 30 rebounds, 29 turnovers.
SWC: 23 of 59 field goals (39 percent), eight of 12 free throws (67 percent), 24 rebounds, 16 turnovers.