By John Rittenhouse
A rocky start for the Hills-Beaver Creek Patriots led to a season-ending boys' basketball loss in Worthington Thursday.
Taking on No. 1 Southwest Christian in a semifinal-round game of the South Section 3A Tournament, the fourth-seeded Patriots showed up for the 6 p.m. start about five minutes late mentally.
The oversight ultimately cost the Patriots the game as they fell 51-37 to the Eagles.
SWC's 14-point win sent it to Monday's championship game against Ellsworth, a 73-72 winner over Red Rock Central in another semifinal-round tilt played in Worthington. H-BC's 15-9 campaign came to an end.
The first five minutes of Thursday's meeting between H-BC and SWC proved to be the difference in the game.
While H-BC stumbled out of the blocks without scoring in the game's first 5:17, the three-time defending state champion Eagles raced to a 15-0 lead.
The Patriots ended up outscoring SWC 37-36 the rest of the night, but they couldn't overcome the mistakes that allowed the Eagles to open their commanding lead early in the game.
Back-to-back hoops by H-BC's Matt Buck and Lyle DeBoer cut SWCÕs 15-point cushion to 11 points (15-4) late in the first period. The Eagles, however, finished the quarter with an 8-3 surge that gave them a 23-7 advantage heading into the second quarter.
After SWC scored the first two points of the second period to expand its lead to 18 points, H-BC put together an 8-0 run capped by a field goal from Brad Haak at the 3:24 mark of the stanza to make it a 25-15 game.
H-BC couldn't cut into SWC's lead any more as the second period progressed. The Eagles used a 5-2 scoring edge in the final three minutes to make it a 30-17 game at the intermission.
SWC started the third quarter with a 7-2 run to open an 18-point (37-19) cushion.
Instead of giving up, the Patriots displayed some heart by outscoring the Eagles 9-2 the rest of the period. DeBoer capped the run by scoring off an offensive rebound with 43 seconds left in the period to make it a 39-28 game.
The difference still was 11 points (43-32) with 4:30 left to play in the fourth quarter, when SWC put together a 6-0 run that gave it a 49-32 lead with less than three minutes remaining.
H-BC ran out of challenges at that point, ending the game 14 points off the pace.
David Top, who had seven rebounds for H-BC, led the Patriots with nine points.
Buck and DeBoer recorded nine rebounds and three steals respectively to lead the Patriots in those categories.
Daniel DeWitt had 11 points and four rebounds for SWC, while Jeff Schaap had 10 points and five rebounds.
Box score
Metzger 0 0 0-0 0, D.DeBoer 1 0 2-2 4, Roozenboom 1 0 0-0 2, Van Maanen 0 0 0-0 0, Haak 2 0 1-4 5, Leuthold 1 0 0-0 2, L.DeBoer 4 0 0-0 8, Van Wyhe 0 0 1-2 1, Top 4 0 1-2 9, Krull 0 0 0-0 0, Buck 3 0 0-1 6.
Team statistics
H-BC: 16 of 49 field goals (33 percent), five of 11 free throws (45 percent), 28 rebounds, 13 turnovers.
SWC: 18 of 45 field goals (40 percent), six of 13 free throws (46 percent), 28 rebounds, 17 turnovers.