Hills-Beaver Creek guard Cassi Tilstra led the Patriots with 10 points during a season-ending loss to Adrian during the South Section 3A Girls’ Basketball Tournament semifinals in Worthington Tuesday.
By John Rittenhouse
A hot-shooting Adrian team played its way into the South Section 3A Girls’ Basketball Tournament championship game by gunning down Hills-Beaver Creek 63-40 in a semifinal-round tilt played in Worthington Tuesday.
Four Dragons reached double figures in scoring during a game in which AHS made 54 percent of its field goals.
Adrian was especially hot in the third quarter, when it missed one field goal attempt while outscoring the Patriots 20-12 to put the game out of reach.
"We shot the ball pretty well," said Dragon coach Randy Strand. "We made 10 of 11 field goals in the third quarter."
The win ups Adrian’s season record to 20-4 and sends the Dragons to their first post-season championship game since the 1999-2000 season. Adrian, which will be playing in its fifth South Section 3A title tilt, plays No. 2 Fulda for the championship 7:30 p.m. Friday in Worthington.
H-BC, which ends the year with a 15-10 mark, looked like it might be ready to challenge the top-seeded Dragons early in the game. The fifth-seeded Patriots beat AHS less than two weeks before Tuesday’s game, and they exchanged blows with the Dragons while falling behind 7-6 early.
Adrian, however, went on an 8-0 run capped by a field goal from Ashley Cox at the 3:12 mark of the first quarter to take a 15-6 lead before expanding the difference to 11 points (18-17) with a three-point shot from Kylie Heronimus with 1:15 remaining. The Dragons led 20-9 at period’s end.
The Dragons still led by 11 (22-11) when they went on an 8-0 run capped by a field goal from Maria Gengler at the 4:50 mark of the second period to open a 30-11 cushion. Adrian led by 20 points (33-13) as the period progressed, but field goals by H-BC’s Sarah Rozeboom and Cassi Tilstra allowed the Patriots to climb within 16 points (33-17) of AHS before trailing 35-17 at the intermission.
Gengler scored the first six points of the third quarter for AHS, which made 91 percent of its field goals in the period. The Dragons led by as many as 27 points in the third quarter before settling for a 55-29 advantage at period’s end.
H-BC closed the gap to 25 points three times in the fourth quarter before making it a 23-point difference when Stacy Bush capped the scoring with a field goal with 12 seconds remaining.
"You got to give Adrian credit because they shot the ball so much better than the last time we played them," said Patriot coach Tom Goehle. "They extended our defense by making some shots from the outside, and that opened things up on the inside for them. They just did a nice job of moving and shooting the ball."
Gengler, who blocked seven shots, recorded a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds for the winners. Andrea Lonneman scored 16 points and passed for eight assists, and Heronimus scored 10 points and recorded seven assists. Ashley Cox contributed 10 points to the winning cause, while Jenna Honermann chipped in five steals.
Cassi Tilstra scored 10 points to lead H-BC.
Box score
H-BC
B.Rozeboom 3 0 1-3 7, Bush 2 0 0-0 4, Feucht 2 0 1-4 5, Sandstede 0 0 0-0 0, Tilstra 4 0 2-4 10, S.Rozeboom 3 0 0-0 6, Hoyme 1 0 0-0 2, Boeve 1 0 2-2 4, Olson 0 0 0-0 0, Mulder 1 0 0-0 2.
Adrian
S.Henning 0 0 0-1 0, Heronimus 2 2 0-1 10, T.Honermann 0 0 0-0 0, J.Honermann 3 0 0-2 6, As.Henning 0 0 0-0 0, Kruger 0 0 0-0 0, Cox 5 0 0-0 10, Lonneman 7 0 2-2 16, Gengler 9 0 1-4 19, Strand 0 0 0-0 0, Wolf 1 0 0-0 2, An.Henning 0 0 0-0 0, Mulder 0 0 0-0 0.
Team statistics
H-BC: 17 of 48 field goals (35 percent), six of 13 free throws (46 percent), 22 rebounds, 12 turnovers.
Adrian: 29 of 54 field goals (54 percent), three of 10 free throws (30 percent), 40 rebounds, 12 turnovers.
