By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek boys' basketball team broke into the win column in a big a way Friday in Okabena when it coasted to a 77-22 victory over Southwest Star Concept.
A solid defensive performance consisting of a mixture of man-to-man and zone resistance was the story of the game for H-BC.
Patriot defenders limited SSC to nine field goals and 21-percent shooting from the floor in the game. The Quasars never scored more than 10 points in a quarter, and H-BC blanked SSC in the third period.
A good share of H-BC's defensive success came after the first quarter, when both teams struggled before the Patriots opened a 14-9 cushion at period's end.
"We got off to a pretty slow start," said Patriot coach Steve Wiertzema. "Once we got going, we played pretty hard."
The Patriots were at their best in the second and third quarters, when they outscored the Quasars 41-3 to take a 55-12 advantage.
A 25-3 scoring cushion in the second quarter increased H-BCÕs lead to 27 points (39-12), and a 16-0 advantage in the third quarter made the difference 43 points.
The Patriots capped the 55-point win by outscoring SSC 22-10 in the final eight minutes of play.
Chris Fransman scored 11 points in the first half and finished with a team-high 22 counters for the winners.
Matt Buck netted eight first-half-points and finished with 18 counters and eight rebounds. Lance Crawford, who had seven rebounds, netted all eight of his points in the first half.
David Top scored 10 points, Lyle DeBoer recorded six steals and Brad Haak charted five assists and five steals for the Patriots.
Wiertzema said unselfish play on the part of H-BC helped the Patriots snap a three-game losing skid.
"One thing I was really happy with was we had 20 assists in the game. We were sharing the ball and setting people up to score," he said.
Box score
Jess 0 0 0-0 0, D.DeBoer 1 0 0-0 2, Van Batavia 1 0 0-0 2, Van Maanen 3 0 1-2 7, Fransman 10 0 2-2 22, Haak 0 0 5-6 5, L.DeBoer 0 0 1-2 1, Van Wyhe 1 0 0-0 2, Top 1 0 8-12 10, Crawford 4 0 0-0 8, Krull 0 0 0-0 0, Buck 7 0 4-8 18.
Team statistics
H-BC: 28 of 54 field goals (52 percent), 21 of 32 free throws (66 percent), 29 rebounds, 14 turnovers.
SSC: nine of 43 field goals (21 percent), three of eight free throws (38 percent), 27 rebounds, 35 turnovers.