The Britton-Hecla boys basketball squad earned a postseason victory on Monday, ousting Wilmot 44-32 in the Region 1B play-in game on its home floor.
The Braves, now 3-17, are the eighth seed, while Wilmot (1-20) was the ninth seed in the region. Britton-Hecla played top-seeded Aberdeen Christian last night Tuesday in the regional quarterfinals. Semifinal games will be played in Webster on Friday at 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
“I thought we came out and played really good defense and had the right amount of intensity,” said B-H coach Troy Knecht. “We were the better team, we’ve played the better schedule, so I just wanted to see the boys come out and establish themselves early.”
That’s exactly what the Braves did.
Wilmot took its only lead of the game, 3-2, on a trey in the first minute of the opening quarter. But Jaxon Zuelhlke, Gage Storley, BoDell Davdison, and Dawson Treeby all answered with buckets to give the Braves a 10-3 lead at the quarter break.
Ashton Mills opened the second period with a pair of free tosses, Landon Carlson swished a trey, and Will Schuller converted a steal to key an 11-4 second quarter run and a 21-7 halftime lead.
Wilmot hung around for much of the second half. The Wolves cut the margin to 2314 midway through the third stanza but Treeby canned a trey, and Davidson and Storley hit fielders to lead a 9-0 run to give B-H a 32-15 lead after three.
The visitors kept things a bit interesting by scoring the first four points of the fourth period, cutting the lead to 3219 with 5:47 to play. Wilmot was still within 12 with 2:45 to play but could not get any closer.
“We executed well on both ends for most of the game,” noted Knecht. Free throw shooting was disappointing. You’d like to be better than 14-30. If we make a few more of those the game isn’t close. I feel like we’ve had moments that show we are a better team than our record, but wins have been hard to come by, so it was nice to get one at home.”
Davidson led the Braves with 12 points and Treeby added nine.
