Class A: Hills-Beaver Creek Earns 1st State title

Ryan James March 28, 2026 @ 01:02 PM

Loud and proud they chated H-B-C! H-B-C! And “Go Big Red!” which confused me as there was more blue in their crowd than red but what didn't confuse me was the “hit the weight room” chant. The Patriots easily have the strongest starting five I have seen all high school basketball season. I am convinced that instead of a halftime speech they went to the WIlliams Arena weight room to get sets of curls in.

They didn't have much to talk about about the break we know that! Hills-Beaver Creek used their excellent size advantage to hold JWP to nine first half points. And the only reason an eight minute scoring drought went from six points to nine was a banked in JWP three! The Patriot defense forced seven first half turnovers and held JWP to 3 of 24 first half shooting .

The Bulldogs simply didn't have the size to stop a player like Riggins Rheault from getting where he wanted to catch and score or catch and enter. The player he and others were often entering the ball to was Jamin Metzger Jamin Metzger 6'5" | PF Hills-Beaver Creek | 2026 State MN who made his first six field goal attempts and his first five foul shots. Even at point guard, HBC lead guard Micah Bush Micah Bush 6'0" | PG Hills-Beaver Creek | 2026 State MN was stronger than any player JWP had!

JWP had a first half spark scoring more points (12) in the first three minutes of the second half than they had the entire first half (9) but they could never get closer than 14 points. Hills-Beaver Creek earned their first state title with a 64-33 victory.

MVP. Jamin Metzger Jamin Metzger 6'5" | PF Hills-Beaver Creek | 2026 State MN . Jamin is a 6'5 strong frontcourt player that will play football for Sioux Falls. JWP did not have the height nor the strength to deal with him when he touched the ball on the block nor could they do anything with him when he went after offensive rebounds. Jamin totaled 22 points on 8 of 10 field goal shooting and 6 of 7 foul shooting. He also grabbed 13 rebounds and dished out four assists.

Three More Standouts

Brodie Metzger Brodie Metzger 6'4" | PG Hills-Beaver Creek | 2028 State MN of Hills-Beaver Creek (Soph). JWP made a second half run that was quickly put to bed by a pair of Brodie threes. The first put the Dogs back on their heels and the second was the dagger. Brodie had a 13 point, eight rebound game making half of his eight attempts but it was those second half threes that were everything.

Micah Bush Micah Bush 6'0" | PG Hills-Beaver Creek | 2026 State MN of Hills-Beaver Creek (Sr). This was not a stat line game for Micah outside of one, turnovers. He had just three. Why is that important? To beat JWP you have to control pace and limit their transition with your ball control, and Micah did that very well. Not a great shooting game but Micah had ten points and seven boards.

Gavin Bauer Gavin Bauer 6'1" | PG State MN of JWP (Soph). JWP had a hard time getting Gavin the ball but when he did have it he scored on five of nine shot attempts for a team high 11 points. Gavin also had a couple blocks but chances to get in space were limited for he and is teammates.