The chances of Hills-Beaver Creek capturing a Tri-County Conference girls' basketball title were damaged Thursday night.
The Patriots traveled to Ellsworth for what was an important league game for both teams.
When Ellsworth came out on top of a low-scoring, 32-28 decision, H-BC's hopes of securing a league crown were dismantled.
With the loss, the Patriots slip to 2-2 in the league. They trail both Ellsworth (2-0) and Southwest Christian (3-0) in the league standings.
H-BC does have one game remaining with each team above them in the standings, but the leaders have yet to play each other, so catching both schools is basically impossible.
H-BC played well enough to beat Ellsworth defensively, but it couldn't get the job done on the offensive side of the court as the Patriots were limited to 25-percent shooting from the floor.
"I thought both teams played well defensively. In all honesty, neither team played well offensively. In large part, the reason for that was the play of the defenses," said Patriot coach Tom Goehle.
H-BC led 6-4 at the end of the first quarter before falling behind 17-14 by halftime.
The Patriots used an 8-6 scoring edge to trim the difference to one point (23-22) by the end of the third quarter, but Ellsworth's 9-6 scoring advantage in the final eight minutes of play gave the Panthers a four-point win.
Erin Boeve scored eight points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Patriots. Shanna Tilstra and Becky Broesder picked up six rebounds each.
Box score
H-BC
C.Tilstra 0 0 2-2 2, Olson 1 0 0-0 2, Sandstede 0 0 0-0 0, Rentschler 1 0 1-2 3, S.Tilstra 1 0 0-0 2, Broesder 1 0 1-5 3, DeNoble 1 0 0-0 2, Boeve 3 0 2-2 8, DeHaan 2 0 0-0 4, Arp 1 0 0-0 2.
Team statistics
H-BC: 11 of 44 field goals (25 percent), six of 11 free throws (55 percent), 35 rebounds, 22 turnovers.
Ellsworth: 13 of 47 field goals (28 percent), six of 15 free throws (40 percent), 36 rebounds, 15 turnovers.