By John RittenhouseThe Hills-Beaver Creek girls will enter the postseason with a full head of steam after recording an upset victory over Fulda in Hills Monday.Fulda, the state’s fifth-ranked team and the No. 1 seed for the upcoming South Section 3A Girls Basketball Tournament, could have earned a share of the Red Rock Conference title with a win over H-BC.The Patriots, however, didn’t cooperate.H-BC took a lead early in the second quarter and never lost the advantage during what ended as a 55-45 victory.The Patriots end the season with a 16-8 overall record and a 10-6 mark in RRC play. Fulda finishes conference play with a 14-2 mark. Southwest Star Concept, which beat Comfrey Monday night, wins the league with a 15-1 mark.H-BC will bring a five-game winning streak into the South Section 3A event, which begins Saturday in Luverne. The fifth-seeded Patriots take on No. 4 Ellsworth at 2:30 p.m.The Patriots won the 2004 South Section 3A title Monday night and proved they can play with the area’s best teams. H-BC faced a pair of four-point deficits in the first quarter before coming from behind to beat the Raiders by 10 points.Fulda scored the game’s first four points before H-BC moved in front 10-8 when Melinda Feucht drained a field goal at the 4:06 mark of the opening period. The Raiders moved in front 14-10 moments later, but H-BC knotted the score at 15 with 39 seconds remaining when Feucht drained a pair of free throws.H-BC opened a 13-point lead (30-17) by going on a 15-2 run capped by Cassi Tilstra’s field goal at the 1:54 mark of the second quarter.Fulda, which trimmed the difference to nine points (30-21) at the intermission, pulled to within two points (32-30) of the Patriots with 5:38 remaining in the third quarter. H-BC met the challenge by scoring nine of the next 11 points to gain a 41-32 cushion that was trimmed by two points (41-34) at period’s end.A field goal by Tilstra with 5:41 remaining in the fourth quarter gave the Patriots their biggest lead (49-36) of the final period. Fulda trailed by nine points as the quarter progressed, but the Raiders never offered a serious threat to H-BC.Tilstra led the Patriots with 18 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and five steals. Feucht and Kerri Fransman netted 16 and 12 points respectively. Brittney Rozeboom snared six rebounds.Box scoreRozeboom 0 0 0-3 0, Fransman 1 3 1-2 12, Bush 0 0 2-4 2, Feucht 6 0 4-5 16, Fink 1 1 0-0 5, Tilstra 5 0 8-10 18, Roozenboom 0 0 0-0 0, Mulder 1 0 0-2 2.Team statisticsH-BC: 18 of 61 field goals (30 percent), 15 of 26 free throws (58 percent), 31 rebounds, five turnovers.Fulda: 20 of 54 field goals (37 percent), five of 10 free throws, 40 rebounds, 14 turnovers.
