By John Rittenhouse
A dominating performance on the boards led the Hills-Beaver Creek boys' basketball team to a 63-56 win in Adrian Friday.
Outrebounding the Dragons 40-16, H-BC was able to take the lead early and fought off a late charge by AHS to win by seven.
The H-BC win avenges a loss to the Dragons in Hills back in January, when Adrian turned in an impressive offensive performance during a 61-54 win.
"We rebounded really well and kept them off the boards," said Patriot coach Steve Wiertzema. "When we played them in Hills, they shot 61 percent from the field. If they were going to shoot like that, we wanted to limit them to one shot. We did a nice job of that and playing defense."
H-BC sported a 13-10 lead before going on a 12-0 run capped by a field goal by Chris Fransman with 28 seconds left in the first period to open a 25-10 lead. The quarter ended with the Patriots sporting a 25-13 lead.
The Patriots scored the first six points of the second quarter and led by as many as 19 points (36-17) as the period progressed, but Adrian countered with an 11-0 run to trim the difference to eight points (36-28) late in the stanza before facing a 37-28 deficit at halftime.
H-BC led by as many as 12 points (40-28) and as few as seven counters (47-40) during the fourth quarter before settling for a nine-point cushion (49-40) at periodÕs end.
After opening an 11-point cushion early in the fourth quarter, H-BC watched the Dragons pull to within three points (59-56) when Travis Rupp hit a field goal with 47 seconds remaining. H-BC, however, made a field goal and two free throws by Lance Crawford in the final 40 seconds to put the game away.
Crawford, who had nine rebounds and five assists, scored eight of his 14 points in the fourth quarter. Matt Buck, who had seven rebounds and six assists for H-BC, netted 10 of his 14 points in the first quarter. David Top led the winners with 17 points. Lyle DeBoer recorded seven rebounds and five assists, while Darin DeBoer contributed seven rebounds.
Adrian's Bryce Block led all scorers with 21 points. Brad Lonneman scored 11 points and collected 11 rebounds before leaving the game with a sprained ankle in the fourth quarter. Mark Kroon registered 11 points and nine assists for an AHS team that had no answer to H-BCÕs rebounding push.
"We were not aggressive on the boards," said Dragon coach Chris Rozell. "We were outrebounded by 24, When that happens, you are in trouble. This was our fourth game of the week, so we were down energy-wise."
Box score
H-BC
D.DeBoer 2 1 2-2 9, Fransman 1 0 0-0 2, Haak 1 0 2-3 4, L.DeBoer 1 0 0-0 2, Van Wyhe 0 0 1-2 1, Top 5 1 4-6 17, Crawford 6 0 2-2 14, Buck 6 0 2-6 14.
Adrian
Hohn 1 0 1-3 3, Kroon 4 1 0-0 11, Baartman 0 2 0-0 6, Block 2 5 2-2 21, Lonneman 3 1 2-6 11, Rupp 2 0 0-0 4.
Team statistics
H-BC: 24 of 58 field goals (41 percent), 13 of 21 free throws (62 percent), 40 rebounds, 17 turnovers.
Adrian: 21 of 56 field goals (38 percent), five of 11 free throws (45 percent), 16 rebounds, 11 turnovers.