By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek girls let a Red Rock Conference game slip away in Hills Tuesday.
Playing their first home game in 2002, the Patriot girls were looking to bounce back from a three-point loss in Pipestone when they entertained the Westbrook-Walnut Grove Chargers.
The Patriots played well enough in the first half to earn a three-point lead, but the Chargers outscored them 26-15 in the second half to pull out a 45-37 victory.
For H-BC coach Tom Goehle, the loss was disheartening because of the way it happened.
"They outplayed us, they outhustled us and wanted to win the game more than we did," he said.
The teams battled to a draw at 11 in the first quarter before H-BC used an 11-8 scoring edge in the second period to gain a 22-19 halftime lead.
W-WG moved in front 31-30 before the third quarter was complete and pulled away from the Patriots in the fourth quarter by outscoring them 14-7.
The Chargers shot the ball better than H-BC did during the game, and that proved to be the difference.
W-WG outscored the Patriots 17-4 at the free-throw line and made 42 percent of its field goals compared with H-BC's 33-percent night.
Erin Boeve scored 12 points to lead H-BC, which slipped to 5-5 with the setback.
The Patriots play a road game against Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin tomorrow.
Box score
B.Rozeboom 1 0 0-0 2, B.Olson 3 0 1-2 7, Rentschler 2 0 0-0 4, Tilstra 0 1 0-0 3, Broesder 4 0 1-2 9, S.Rozeboom 0 0 0-0 0, DeNoble 0 0 0-0 0, Boeve 5 0 2-2 12, A.Olson 0 0 0-0 0.
Team statistics
H-BC: 16 of 48 field goals (33 percent), four of six free throws (67 percent).
W-WG: 13 of 31 field goals (42 percent), 17 of 23 free throws (74 percent).