Hills-Beaver Creek guard Tyler Bush lays up a shot over Ellsworth’s Adam Sieff (23) during Saturday’s championship game of the South Section 3A Basketball Tournament in Marshall. H-BC sported a lead in the fourth quarter before falling to the Panthers 65-60.By John RittenhouseA spirited effort wasn’t enough to lift Hills-Beaver Creek to a victory over Ellsworth in the South Section 3A Boys’ Basketball Tournament championship game Saturday at Southwest State University in Marshall.The Patriots gave the defending South Section and Section 3A champion Panthers all they wanted in the form of a challenge.Unfortunately for H-BC, it wasn’t enough to extend what ends as a 20-9 season.Ellsworth senior and former H-BC-E football quarterback Curt Schilling sank four free throws in the final 30 seconds of the game to give the Panthers a 65-60 victory.Ellsworth returns to SSU tonight, where it will take on Russell-Tyler-Ruthton in the Section 3A title tilt at 8 p.m.H-BC, which was playing in its first postseason championship game since 1998, looked like it might bag the Panthers when it took a 53-51 lead with 5:59 left to play in the game. Ellsworth, however, countered with a 10-0 run to open an eight-point lead and withstood a late challenge by the Patriots to prevail by five points.A disappointed H-BC coach Steve Wiertzema thought his Patriots played well enough to win the game when the contest was over. H-BC simply gave Ellsworth too many second chances to score during the clash."Their offensive rebounding killed us," Wiertzema said. "Offensive rebounds basically are automatic points, and I bet they got 20 points on offensive rebounds. We held Schilling down in the first half by doubling him from the front and behind, but we had to switch things up because we were getting killed so bad with their offensive boards."The Patriots got off to a strong start in the first quarter and led 6-3 when Tyler Bush drained a pair of free throws at the 5:06 mark of the period.H-BC reserve Travis Broesder made a field goal at 1:58 of the period to give the Patriots their second three-point lead of the stanza at 10-7, but Ellsworth scored the last five points of the quarter to take a 12-10 edge into the second period.The Patriots trailed 13-12 when Ellsworth went on a 7-0 run that gave it a 20-12 lead 3:04 into the second quarter.H-BC pulled within three points (20-17) of EHS when Bush converted a three-point play with 3:57 remaining in the first half, but the Panthers rebuilt an eight-point cushion (29-21) before settling for a seven-point (31-24) halftime advantage.The Patriots got the better of EHS in the third quarter, slicing Ellsworth’s lead to four points at five different occasions.A pair of three-point shots by Zach Wysong trimmed the difference to two points (45-43) with 1:03 remaining in the quarter, and H-BC remained within two points (47-45) of the Panthers at quarter’s end.Ellsworth led by four points early in the fourth quarter before H-BC’s Tom LeBoutiller knotted the score at 51 with a field goal at 6:22 of the period before Bush converted a layup 23 seconds later to give the Patriots a 53-51 lead.The Panthers answered the challenge by going on a 10-0 run that ended with a field goal from Lee Farrell with 3:09 remaining and gave EHS a 61-53 advantage.Kale Wiertzema, who scored 18 of his game-high 27 points in the second half, drew the Patriots within one point (61-60) when he connected for a field goal with 1:32 left to play.Ellsworth’s Schilling iced the game by making two free throws with 29.7 seconds remaining before adding two more with 14.4 seconds left.Wiertzema and LeBoutiller grabbed five and four rebounds respectively for H-BC. Bush and Wysong charted six and five assists.Box scoreH-BCBush 4 0 3-4 11, Wysong 0 2 0-0 6, Broesder 2 0 0-0 4, Wiertzema 9 2 3-6 27, Van Wyhe 5 0 0-0 10, Spykerboer 0 0 0-0 0, LeBoutillier 1 0 0-0 2.EllsworthCr.Schilling 7 0 8-11 22, Janssen 2 2 0-0 10, Co.Schilling 0 1 0-0 3, Sieff 1 1 0-0 5, Alberty 8 1 0-0 19, Herman 0 0 0-0 0, Farrell 3 0 0-1 6.Team statisticsH-BC: 25 of 43 field goals (58 percent), six of 10 free throws (60 percent), 21 rebounds, six turnovers.Ellsworth: 26 of 50 field goals (52 percent), eight of 12 free throws (67 percent), 28 rebounds, five turnovers.
