Spirit Lake, Iowa –- Defending State 2A Champion Western Christian advanced to the Boys Substate round of basketball with 71-54 win over Hartley Melvin Sanborn Tuesday night in the the District 1 title game at Spirit Lake.
The Wolfpack were up 19-15 at the end of the first quarter and moved to a 42-29 halftime advantage. HMS went on a run fueled by five third quarter 3-pointers to pull within 46-41 before Western Christian went on a run of their own that resulted in a 60-44 lead at the end of the third quarter. Western would seal the win at the free throw line going 9-of-11 in the fourth quarter. That included a 6-of-6 individual performance by Ben Gesink who finished with a game high 24 points on the night.
Gesink was joined by Josh Van Lingen with 18 and Taylor Miedema who hit for 16 points including four 3-point buckets. One those came as time expired in the third quarter to put the Wolfpack up by 16 going into the final 8 minutes of play.
HMS had two players in double figures getting 17 points from Blake Simons and 14 more from Daniel Heitritter. The two combined for six of the teams eleven 3-point buckets in the game. HMS would hit three of them in the first quarter, one in the second quarter, five in the third quarter and two more in the fourth.
With the win Western advances to Substate with a 21-2 record. HMS finishes at 13-11 on the season. The Wolfpack ranked number two in the final Radio Iowa poll will square off against Sioux Center for the State 2A boys tournament berth. The Warriors earned their way in with a 72-61 win over Hinton in the District 1 title game decided at the LeMars high School Gym Tuesday night.
