Hills-Beaver Creek’s Trey Van Whye (left) and Kale Wiertzema (right) trap an Adrian player during Thursday’s boys’ basketball game in Adrian. Van Wyhe and Wiertzema led the Patriots with seven rebounds each during a 68-65 home loss to Southwest Christian Saturday.By John RittenhouseThe Hills-Beaver Creek boys’ basketball team slipped two games behind the leaders in Red Rock Conference play after dropping a 68-65 decision to Southwest Christian in Hills Saturday.H-BC, the defending RRC champion, stands at 3-2 in league play after falling to the Eagles by three points.SWC (5-0) and Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin (4-0) are unbeaten in RRC play.Saturday’s game against SWC, a team the Patriots beat twice last season, was competitive from beginning to end.The Eagles led 14-12 at the end of the first quarter and increased the difference to four points (31-27) by outscoring the Patriots 17-15 in the second period.The Patriots used an 18-17 scoring edge to whittle the difference to three points (48-45) by the end of the third quarter.SWC led by as many as 10 points in the fourth quarter before H-BC used a late rally to pull within one point of the Eagles late in the game. SWC, however, drained a pair of late free throws to win the game by three points.Kale Wiertzema, Tyler Bush and Zach Wysong shot the ball well for the Patriots.Wiertzema made five of six two-point shots and led H-BC with 25 counters, while Bush made all six of his two-point shots and scored 17 points. Wysong buried three of five three-point shots during a 12-point performance.Wiertzema, who led the Patriots with six assists, shared the team lead in rebounding with Trey Van Wyhe with seven caroms each.Bush added six rebounds and three assists to the cause. Tom LeBoutillier led the Patriots with three steals.Box scoreBush 6 0 5-8 17, Wysong 1 3 1-3 12, Jackson 0 0 0-0 0, Broesder 0 0 0-2 0, Wiertzema 5 1 12-17 25, Van Wyhe 3 0 3-4 9, Spykerboer 0 0 2-2 2, LeBoutillier 0 0 0-0 0.Team statisticsH-BC: 19 of 46 field goals (41 percent), 23 of 36 free throws (64 percent), 25 rebounds, nine turnovers.SWC: 23 of 50 field goals (46 percent), 11 of 15 free throws (73 percent), 29 rebounds, 10 turnovers.
