The Hettinger boys basketball team's philosophy is to just keep hammering away and the stone -- other teams -- will crumble.
"The more times you hit it, the more brittle it becomes and eventually it cracks and that's what we did in the fourth quarter, it cracked," Hettinger senior guard Jerad Jacobson said.
Jacobson's 19-point hammer helped crack No. 3 seed Heart River's rock 45-39 in District 13 semifinal action at Scott Gymnasium on Saturday night.
"Offensively we were just really patient," Hettinger head coach Adam Hill said. "We moved the ball around and I think the longer they had frustration on offense I think it leaked into their defense a little bit."
Heart River started the second quarter hot, leading by nine at one point, but the Black Devils closed the gap to three before a Jimmy Smith 3-pointer at the buzzer sent the teams to the locker with the Cougars leading 24-18.
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"Our biggest adjustment was we said let's make somebody besides Smith and (James) Duletski beat us," Hill said. "Our biggest thing was to get in the zone, find those two guys and make somebody else make a shot to beat us and luckily for us they didn't make too many by those other guys."
Smith and Duletski led the Cougars with 16 and 11 points, respectively. Duletski added nine rebounds.
The Black Devils made their fair share of shots in the second half as well, putting together a 20-3 run to open the half and the Cougars never recovered eventually falling 45-49.
Hettinger (16-5) advances to the District 13 championship game to play Beach (13-8) at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Heart River plays No. 5 Scranton (8-12) in a region qualifier at 6 p.m. Monday.
Heart River 13 24 27 39
Hettinger 8 18 30 45
HR: Jimmy Smith 16, James Duletski 11, Jared Schoch 5, Dalton O'Brien 5, Eric Taylor 2.
H: Jerad Jacobson 17, Ryan Fulker 10, Drew Nash 9, Nathan Weaver 7, Lance Johnson 2.
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3-pointers: Smith 2, O'Brien, Weaver. Free throws: HR 6-8, H 14-20. Total fouls: HR 21, H 12. Fouled out: Taylor. Rebounds: HR 28 (Duletski 9), H 34 (Nash 8). Assists: HR 11 (Schoch 3), H 12 (Fulker 3, Jacobson 3, Weaver 3). Steals: HR 6 (Smith 2), H 6 (Fulker 3). Blocks: HR 1 (Schoch), H 1 (Fulker). Turnovers: HR 13, H 14.
Tigers 58, Wildfire 51
New England senior Cory Wilhelm had 18 points in seven points while leading his seventh-seeded team to a victory over No. 6 seed Mott-Regent in a loser-out game. Freshman guard Clarence Binstock and junior forward Shawn Kuntz each added 16 points.
Junior guard Luke Honeyman had 19 points to lead Mott-Regent, which ends its season at 4-17 and New England advances to face Bowman County (15-5) at 7:30 p.m. Monday.
NE 12 28 42 58
MR 12 23 34 51
NE: Cory Wilhelm 18, Shawn Kuntz 16, Clarence Binstock 16, Avery Krebs 7, Mark Frank 1.
MR: Luke Honeyman 19, Chad Mosbrucker 12, Nick Kautzman 10, Nate Fries 10.
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3-pointers: Kuntz 4, Binstock 3, Wilhelm, Honeyman 3. Free throws: NE 8-14, MR 2-2. Total fouls: NE 10, MR 15. Rebounds: NE 26 (Wilhelm 7, Krebs 7), MR 24 (Kautzman 9). Assists: NE 21 (Frank 8), MR 20 (Randy Reich 6). Steals: NE 4 (Binstock 3), MR 9 (Honeyman 2, Reich 2). Blocks: NE 4 (Wilhelm 4), MR 0. Turnovers: NE 13, MR 7.
