By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek boys’ basketball team survived a scare from Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin Tuesday in Hills to remain unbeaten in Red Rock Conference play.
The visiting Wolverines roughed up H-BC on the boards in the early going to take a 17-10 lead in the first quarter, but the Patriots met the challenge the rest of the way and pulled out a 51-50 victory in the end.
The win upped H-BC’s season record to 8-4 and improved to 7-0 in the RRC.
H-BC hosts Westbrook-Walnut Grove Friday before playing West Lyon, near Inwood, Iowa, Saturday.
According to Patriot coach Steve Wiertzema, answering the physical challenge being offered by the Wolverines proved to be the difference in Tuesday’s game.
"ML-B-O is a pretty good team. They are big and quick. We did a lot better job of playing defense and rebounding in the second half. They only had three offensive rebounds in the second half, and they were killing us on the boards in the first half," he said.
The Patriots got over their slow start in the first quarter by outscoring the Wolverines 20-10 in the second period to move in front 30-27 at halftime.
H-BC maintained a three-point cushion (42-39) heading into the final period of play. ML-B-O made a late run that fell short when a Wolverine missed a running shot in the lane as time expired.
Tyson Metzger, who hit an important three-point shot late in the game, led H-BC with 17 points. He also had seven rebounds and three steals.
Kale Wiertzema also hit an important three and drained a free throw late in the fourth quarter for H-BC. He finished the game with seven rebounds and six assists.
Tyler Bush turned in a seven-assist, six-rebound and three-steal performance. Trey Van Wyhe added 11 points and nine rebounds to the cause.
Box score
Bush 3 0 0-1 6, Wysong 0 0 0-0 0, Roozenboom 2 0 0-0 4, Wiertzema 1 1 2-4 7, Metzger 5 1 4-7 17, Leuthold 3 0 0-0 6, Van Wyhe 4 0 3-4 11.
Team statistics
H-BC 20 of 49 field goals (41 percent), nine of 16 free throws (56 percent), 36 rebounds, 15 turnovers.
ML-B-O: 20 of 54 field goals (37 percent), seven of 10 free throws (70 percent), 27 rebounds, nine turnovers.