The Hills-Beaver Creek boys advanced to the championship game of the South Section 3A Basketball Tournament for the second consecutive year Thursday in Worthington.
H-BC, the tournament’s second seed, squared off against No. 3 Russell-Tyler-Ruthton during Thursday’s semifinals.
The Patriots received an opportunity to avenge their first loss of the season against the Knights back on Jan. 4.
They got the job done by securing a 70-51 victory over R-T-R.
It was the 16th straight victory for the 25-3 Patriots.
H-BC withstood a pair of R-T-R runs to prevail by 19 points in the semifinal.
After the teams exchanged baskets in the opening minute, H-BC scored eight consecutive points to open a 10-2 cushion when Travis Helgeson banked home a field goal at the 15-minute mark of the first half.
The Patriots extended their lead to 10 points (18-8) when Andrew Scholten drained a field goal at the 11:32 mark, but R-T-R countered with a 10-2 run to slice the Patriots’ lead to two points (20-18) with 9:18 remaining in the stanza.
H-BC didn’t allow the Knights to complete their comeback attempt.
A 16-6 run ending with a jump shot from the baseline by Scholten gave the Patriots a 36-24 lead with 2:04 left in the opening half.
R-T-R scored the final two points of the stanza to trail 36-26 at the break.
The Knights battled their way back into contention during the early stages of the second half.
R-T-R scored the first four points of the half and continued to chip away at H-BC’s lead to make it a two-point difference (43-41) at the 11-minute mark.
H-BC senior Colton Bass extended the lead to seven points (49-42) with a layup at 8:51, but the Knights scored the next three points to trail 49-45.
The way things turned out, the four-point difference proved to be as close as R-T-R would come to catching the Patriots.
A 13-2 run capped by a field goal from Scholten left H-BC sporting a 15-point (62-47) lead with 3:34 remaining.
H-BC extended its advantage to 21 points (70-49) in the game’s final minute before winning by 19 points in the end.
Karic Wiertzema (22 points, nine rebounds and six assists), Scholten (20 points, seven rebounds and two steals) and Helgeson (14 points and seven rebounds) carried the Patriots to victory.
Box score
Sandbulte 0 0 0-0 0, Ellingson 0 0 2-2 2, Tilstra 0 1 1-2 4, Bass 1 0 4-8 6, Luze 0 0 0-0 0, Wiertzema 5 1 9-10 22, Reese 0 0 0-0 0, Larson 0 0 2-2 2, Scholten 9 0 2-4 20, Helgeson 7 0 0-0 14, Nuffer 0 0 0-0 0, Klarenbeek 0 0 0-0 0, Fransman 0 0 0-0 0.
Team statistics
H-BC: 25 of 45 field goals (56 percent), 18 of 24 free throws (75 percent), 31 rebounds, 14 turnovers.
R-T-R: 21 of 51 field goals (41 percent), seven of 15 free throws (47 percent), 18 rebounds, nine turnovers.
