By Skip Hunter –

The SWC Eagles’ boys basketball team finished up last week with a trip to Hills to play the HBC Patriots. In the past the 2 teams have furnished a lot of drama and entertaining basketball. This year the only drama would be how large would be the margin of victory. It was a good game for Coach Jamie Pap to use his complete bench and let some of the second string get some seasoning for future games as the Eagles ran away with a 76-43 victory.

HBC scored the first 3 points before Dawson Rieck, who has been struggling beyond the arc, splashed home a trey to tie the score. After HBC scored a bucket, Cody Van’t Hof drove into the lane to score. Jarett Kuipers, fouled while shooting, made 1 of 2. Aiden Schaap swiped the ball and made a nice pass to brother Micah for a bucket. HBC went ahead 9-8 before Carter Van Hulzen scored using a Van’t Hof feed. M. Schaap went 1 of 2 from the line followed by a Van Hulzen trey assisted by Schaap. A. Schaap later pulled down an offensive board passed to Walhof who scored to make the count 16-9.

The Eagles continued a 12-0 run with a drive by Rieck for 2, and an A. Schaap bucket fueled by a Van’t Hof pass after a diving steal. Then Van’t Hof grabbed a defensive rebound and loped end to end for a deuce. HBC broke the run, but the Eagles came back with a putback bucket by Van Hulzen. A. Schaap swiped the ball and scored followed by a Jacob Uilk triple assisted by M. Schaap.

After the Patriots picked up 4 points, the Eagles performed a crowd-pleasing play. Van’t Hof stole the ball and gave an alley-oop pass to Van Hulzen for a 1-handed dunk. Van Hulzen scored down low using a Rieck assist. Uilk drained another trey, assisted by Van Hulzen, to end the first half scoring with the Eagles leading 36-17.

The Eagles scored the first 8 points of the second half. Rieck fed Van Hulzen for a deuce and M. Schaap drove the lane for 2 points. The Eagles then moved the ball down the court with a pass from Van Hulzen to M, Schaap who fed Van’t Hof for a bucket. Later Van’t Hof fed Walhof for 2 points. After HBC broke their second half ice with a bucket, A. Schaap was fouled while shooting and was successful twice. Schaap scored again from the free throw line. Ethan Sas scored next on a nice drive down the lane to make the score 49-22 with 12:28 left in the game.