Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – When you’re hot, you’re hot.

Brock Hilsman and Clear Creek Amana are on fire of late.

Hilsman hit a contested 18-footer at the buzzer as Class 3A ninth-ranked Clear Creek Amana extended its winning streak to 10 with a 56-55 win over Williamsburg on Tuesday in a WAMAC West Division thriller in Tiffin.

“It feels like we are on fire,” Clear Creek Amana senior point guard Haiden Hardy said. “Our winning streak is there.”

Clear Creek Amana (14-5, 9-1 WAMAC West) trailed by a point with five seconds remaining after Kellen Cockrell gave Williamsurg (10-7) the lead with a pair of free throws.

Hardy took a sideline inbounds pass and raced into the front court where he found Hilsman who was blanketed by a pair of defenders.

Hilsman took a dribble and drilled the game-winner from the corner as time expired.

“We had two shooters in the corners and our big set a screen for Haiden and he was supposed to drive it either side and draw defenders or kick or get all the way to the basket and score,” Hilsman said. “I just took two dribbles and looked at the rim and shot it.”

Clear Creek Amana entered January 3-4 and was 4-5 after a loss to Mount Vernon on January 11.

The Clippers haven’t lost since rattling off 10 consecutive wins, including two each over WAMAC West Division contenders Williamsburg and Grinnell.

The final two wins over Grinnell and Williamsburg came in a span of a little more than 24 hours.

Clear Creek Amana defeated Grinnell 64-61 on Monday and locked up the West Division title with its win over Williamsburg on Tuesday.

“These past two games we’ve gotten pretty lucky, if I’m being honest,” Hillsman said. “Our offense hasn’t been great, we’ve had to work hard on defense but I feel like our defense has helped us. We are struggling on offense but we are making it up with defense.”

Clear Creek Amana led 29-25 at the half before Williamsburg opened the third quarter on a 9-2 run to take a 34-31 lead.

The Raiders led 41-39 after three quarters and by as many as three on two occasions in the fourth quarter.

“Defensively we did some things that allowed us to be in the game,” Clear Creek Amana coach Brandon Clubb said. “We weren’t doing great things on offense but we hit the big one when we needed to.”

Hardy gave Clear Creek Amana a 54-53 lead with a driving layup with 23 seconds remaining.

The Clippers had a chance to potentially close out the game on the ensuing possession but Williamsburg grabbed two offensive rebounds, the second coming from Cockrell who was fouled with 6.9 seconds remaining.

Cockrell hit two free throws to give the Raiders a 55-54 lead and set the stage for Hilsman.

“We had Andy (Rotzoll) in the corner, we had Brock in the corner and we were trying to get Haiden downhill in the middle,” Clubb said of the final play. “He got a little off but he had a guy on each side and he hit Brock and Brock made a heck of a play.”

Hilsman finished with 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting, none as big as the game-winner.

“I was going to put my head down and attack the basket but there was no open lane,” Hardy said. “I pitched it to Brock and hoped he’d make something of it and he did.”

Rotzoll had 15 points to lead the Clippers and Hardy had 10 points as Clear Creek Amana shot 53 percent from the field.

Williamsburg shot just 34 percent (20-59) and was 3-of-20 from 3-point range but got a game-high 20 points and eight rebounds from senior Derek Weisskopf and 16 points and 10 rebounds from Cockrell.

“We were trying to take away Derek most of the night and make things hard for him and I think we did,” Clubb said. “Late we had a couple of plays that didn’t go our way and then the big one that did.”

Clear Creek Amana made 7-of-8 field goal attempts in the fourth quarter while winning back-to-back games over Williamsburg for the first time since the 2020-2021 season.

“I think we had to learn how to win and we kind of did that along the way,” Clubb said. “Early in the year these are games we don’t win but we’ve just grown and I think the biggest thing we’ve done is we’ve learned to do whatever we need to do to win that night and different nights it’s different things and we’ve figured those things out.”

Williamsburg                        12  13  16  14  –  55   

Clear Creek Amana            10  19  10  17  –  56

Williamsburg (55) –   Simeon Armbrecht 0-2 0-0 0, Clayten Steckly 0-4 0-0 0, Bryson Wetjen 1-5 0-0 2, Logan Rethwisch 0-1 0-0 0, Grant Hocker 2-12 2-2 6, John Eichhorn 0-1 0-0 0, Derek Weisskopf 8-17 2-2 20, Braden Plotz 5-8 1-2 11, Kellen Cockrell 4-9 7-10 16, Totals 20-59 12-16 55.

Clear Creek Amana (56) – Haiden Hardy 4-8 2-3 10, Brock Hilsman 4-6 0-0 10, Cale Berry 4-8 0-0 8, Andrew Rotzoll 6-11 1-1 15, Robert Meade 2-5 0-0 4, Ethan Vice 2-4 0-0 4, Brody Clubb 2-3 1-4 5, Totals 24-45 4-8 56.

3-point field goals – WIL 3-20 (Armbrecht 0-1, Steckly 0-1, Wetjen 0-3, Rethwisch 0-1, Hocker 0-5, Weisskopf 2-5, Plotz 0-1, Cockrell 1-3), CCA 4-13 (Hardy 0-2, Hilsman 2-3, Berry 0-1, Rotzoll 2-7). Rebounds – WIL 39 (Cockrell 10), CCA 25 (Hilsman 6). Turnovers – WIL 11, CCA 12. Total fouls – WIL 8, CCA 11. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

Did you enjoy this subscription free article? Help keep Your Prep Sports free by donating.