By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek girls' basketball team let a possible win slip away during the regular season finale against Worthington in Hills Tuesday.
Leading 27-18 with 3:27 remaining in the third quarter, it looked like the Patriots would snap a season-long three-game losing skid.
Worthington, however, had a different plan. The Trojans went on a 32-9 scoring run in the final 11 minutes of the game to pull out a 50-36 victory.
The loss ended a 12-11 regular season for the Patriots, who will take a four-game losing skid into the quarterfinal round of the Section 3A South Tournament in Worthington. The Patriots play Southwest Christian or Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster at 8 p.m.
The Trojans did most of the damage to H-BC in the fourth quarter, when they turned a 30-28 deficit to start the period into a win by outscoring the hosts 22-6 in the stanza.
The game started with H-BC's Becky Broesder scoring all of her teamÕs points in a first quarter that ended with the Patriots sporting a 6-4 lead.
H-BC led by three (9-6) when Broesder connected for a field goal at the 5:41 mark of the second quarter; then Worthington countered with a 6-0 run that gave the team a 13-9 lead.
The Trojans were in front 14-11 when the Patriots went on an 8-0 run, with six of the points coming from Erin Boeve, to open a 19-14 advantage. Worthington scored the final two points of the half to make it a 19-16 game.
An 8-2 run capped by a field goal by Brittney Olson gave the Patriots their biggest lead of the game (27-18) with 3:18 remaining in the third quarter. The Trojans answered the challenge by ending the quarter with a 10-3 surge that trimmed H-BCÕs lead to two points (30-28) at period's end.
Worthington opened the fourth quarter by putting together an 11-2 run that gave it a 39-32 lead with four minutes left to play. The Patriots pulled to within five points of the Trojans twice as the period progressed, but they were outscored 11-4 the rest of the way.
Boeve led H-BC with 10 points, 11 rebounds, four blocked shots and four steals. Olson added three assists to the cause
Box score
B.Rozeboom 3 0 1-2 7, B.Olson 1 0 1-4 3, Rentschler 1 0 0-0 2, Tilstra 1 1 1-2 6, Broesder 3 0 2-6 8, S.Rozeboom 0 0 0-0 0, DeNoble 0 0 0-0 0, Boeve 3 0 4-7 10.
Team statistics
H-BC: 14 of 45 field goals (31 percent), nine of 21 free throws (43 percent), 24 rebounds, 22 turnovers.
Worthington: 17 of 49 field goals (35 percent), 13 of 21 free throws (62 percent), 29 rebounds, nine turnovers.