The Hills-Beaver Creek boys’ basketball team suffered a couple of hard-fought losses over the past week with games at home and away.
The Patriots fell to Westbrook Walnut Grove 70-62 in Hills Thursday, Jan. 27, and the Murray County Central Rebels used a home-court advantage to take H-BC 64-50 Saturday in Slayton.
The Patriots, now 4-5 in conference play and 6-8 overall, travel to Westbrook Thursday for a rematch with the Westbrook Walnut Grove Chargers.
WWG 70, H-BC 62
It was a close battle all the way to the end Thursday night in Hills between Hills-Beaver Creek and Westbrook-Walnut Grove.
The Patriots went into the halftime break sporting a 34-29 lead.
The second half went back and forth as the Chargers hit a bucket with just over three minutes to go to give them a one-point lead.
A couple of late buckets and free throws helped put the Patriots away for good as they fell 70-62.
Five three-pointers on the night by senior Ty Bundesen (15 points) kept the Patriots in the ball game for most of the game.
Senior Cole Baker also added 16 points to lead the Pates in scoring while Andrew Harris (8 rebounds) rounded out the double digit scoring with 10 of his own.
Other contributors for the home team included Liam Raymon (9 points) and Oliver Deelstra (8 points) who each came down with six rebounds.
Box score:
Baker 2 2 6-10 16, Deelstra 4 0 0-0 8, Raymon 3 0 3-5 9, Harnack 0 0 0-0 0, Page 0 0 0-0 0, Leenderts 0 1 1-2 4, Bundesen 0 5 0-0 15, Gehrke 0 0 0-0 0, Metzger 0 0 0-0 0, Taubert 0 0 0-0 0, Tatge 0 0 0-0 0, Durst 0 0 0-0 0, Scholten 0 0 0-0 0, Harris 5 0 0-0 10, Wiersema 0 0 0-0 0
Team stats:
HBC: 22 of 63 (35 percent), 10 of 17 free throws (59 percent), 32 rebounds, 12 turnovers
WWG: 27 of 53 (51 percent), 9 for 14 free throws (64 percent), 31 rebounds, 14 turnovers
MCC 64, H-BC 50
For the second game in a row, the Patriots started out with the lead heading into halftime but fell just short in the final few minutes of the game.
Saturday night in Slayton, the Pates held a 25-21 advantage at intermission before ultimately falling 64-50.
Senior Cole Baker gave his best effort, scoring 30 of H-BC’s 50 points on the night, including a fast break dunk that gave them a five-point lead late in the first half.
The Rebels went on to outscore the Patriots 43-25 after the break to give them a 14-point victory.
Seniors Troy Durst and Liam Raymon each added five points for HBC
Box score:
Baker 8 2 8-14 30, Deelstra 1 0 2-4 4, Raymon 1 1 0-0 5, Harnack 0 0 0-0 0, Page 0 0 0-0 0, Leenderts 0 1 0-1 3, Bundesen 1 0 1-2 3, Gehrke 0 0 0-0 0, Metzger 0 0 0-0 0, Taubert 0 0 0-0 0, Tatge 0 0 0-0 0, Durst 2 0 1-2 3, Scholten 0 0 0-0 0, Harris 0 0 0-0 0, Wiersema 0 0 0-0 0
Team stats:
H-BC: 17 of 40 (43 percent), 12 for 23 free throws (52 percent), 15 rebounds, 19 turnovers
MCC: 21 of 43 (49 percent), 21 of 40 free throws (53 percent), 34 rebounds, 18 turnovers