Hills-Beaver Creek junior Tom LeBoutillier works his way to the basket during Friday’s Red Rock Conference basketball game against Adrian in Hills. H-BC rallied from a six-point deficit in the fourth quarter to top the Dragons 47-44.By John RittenhouseThe Hills-Beaver Creek boys’ basketball team completed a sweep of its annual season series with Adrian by defeating the Dragons 47-44 in Hills Friday.H-BC trailed by six points with 4:09 remaining in the fourth quarter before rallying to outscore AHS 12-3 the rest of the night to win by three points.Adrian took a 33-30 lead into the fourth quarter of play and led by six (41-35) when Casey Knips converted a field goal at 4:09.Tyler Bush, who scored 10 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter, played a big role in H-BC’s late-game comeback.Bush converted a field goal with 44 seconds remaining to give the Patriots a 45-44 lead before draining a pair of free throws with 11 seconds left to make it a 47-44 game.Adrian’s Brandon Wolf and Kyle Knips both released potential game-tying three-point shots in the final six seconds of the contest. Neither attempt found the mark.Adrian, which outscored the Patriots 15-1 in the first quarter of a 53-48 loss to H-BC during a game played in Adrian in Jan. 8, scored the first four points of Friday’s rematch and led 11-3 when Kyle Knips connected for a field goal at the 3:50 mark of the first stanza.H-BC countered with a 6-2 spurt capped by a field goal from Tom LeBoutillier with 1:30 remaining, but the Dragons scored the next six points and led 19-9 when Brett Block hit a shot with 26 seconds left in the quarter.The Patriots opened the second quarter with an 11-1 run that ended with the score tied at 20 when Kale Wiertzema sank a three-point shot at the 4:33 mark of the period.H-BC led 26-24 when Wiertzema converted a field goal with 26 seconds left to play in the first half, but Adrian’s Brandon Wolf hit an off-balance shot with one second remaining to knot the score at 26.The game was tied at 30 in a low-scoring third quarter before Adrian’s David Brake converted a field goal and Wolf added a free throw to make it a 33-30 game entering the decisive fourth quarter.Wiertzema, who latched onto eight rebounds and passed for four assists, led all players with 22 points. Bush charted eight rebounds, six assists and three steals for the winners. Trey Van Wyhe added eight rebounds to the winning cause, and Zach Wysong chipped in three steals.Kyle Knips, who scored nine points in the first period for AHS, led the Dragons with 15 counters. Wolf scored 11 points and dished out six assists. Casey Knips secured a game-high 16 rebounds. David Brake led the Dragons with two steals.Box scoreAdrianWolf 2 2 1-4 11, Klaassen 0 0 0-0 0, Block 2 0 0-0 4, Weidert 0 0 0-0 0, K.Knips 6 0 3-4 15, D.Brake 3 0 2-2 8, Stover 0 0 0-0 0, B.Brake 0 0 0-0 0, C.Knips 3 0 0-0 6.H-BCBush 5 0 6-6 16, Wysong 2 1 0-0 7, Broesder 0 0 0-0 0, Wiertzema 8 2 0-0 22, Van Wyhe 0 0 0-0 0, Spykerboer 0 0 0-2 0, LeBoutillier 1 0 0-0 2.Team statisticsAdrian: 18 of 53 field goals (34 percent), six of 10 free throws (60 percent), 35 rebounds, 15 turnovers.H-BC: 19 of 40 field goals (48 percent), six of eight free throws (75 percent), 29 rebounds, eight turnovers.
