Hills-Beaver Creek post Erin Boeve (43) worked the paint to score 20 points during Monday's 50-43 girls' basketball victory in Ellsworth.
By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek girls pulled off a come-from-behind victory when they squared off against Ellsworth in a non-conference basketball game in Ellsworth Monday.
Trailing by as many as eight points in the first half, the Patriots clawed their way within two points of the Panthers at the intermission.
H-BC completed the comeback by outscoring Ellsworth 32-21 in the second half to nail down a 50-43 win.
Erin Boeve and Jody Rentschler played key roles in H-BC's second-half rally.
Boeve netted 14 of her team-high 20 points in the final two stanzas. Rentschler struck for eight of her 10 points.
Ellsworth led 22-18 heading into the third quarter, but the Patriots went on an 8-2 run in the first 3:30 of the second half to take their first lead of the game at 26-24.
Panther Kayla Boltjes canned a three-point shot to put EHS in front 27-26 before the Patriots went on an 8-0 run consisting of five points from Boeve and three by Brittney Rozebom. This gave H-BC a seven-point advantage (34-27) that was trimmed to five points (34-29) when Jamie Leuthold converted a field goal for EHS with six seconds remaining in the period.
Ellsworth scored the first two points in the fourth quarter to trail by three, but the Patriots countered with a 10-0 run to open the biggest lead of the game at 44-31.
The Panthers did climb within seven points (46-39) when Laurel Drenth converted a three-point play with 1:54 remaining, but that would be as close as EHS would come to catching H-BC.
Ellsworth looked to be the stronger team in the first half.
Boltjes canned a three-point shot at 4:59 of the first quarter to give the hosts a 7-2 advantage. H-BC pulled to within one point of the Panthers twice as the period progressed before facing a 14-12 deficit at period's end.
Jenna Groen, who netted 20 points to lead the Panthers, capped a 6-0 run to start the second quarter with a field goal at 4:24 to give EHS its biggest lead of the game at 20-12. The score was 22-14 when H-BC ended the quarter with a 6-0 run capped by Rozeboom's field goal with 38 seconds left in a first half that ended with EHS sporting a 22-18 lead.
Eleven of Groen's 20 points came in the first half. Leuthold scored eight of her 14 points in the first half for EHS.
Box score
H-BC
B.Rozeboom 4 0 1-3 9, B.Olson 2 0 0-0 4, Rentschler 4 0 2-4 10, Tilstra 2 0 1-2 5, S.Rozeboom 1 0 0-0 2, DeNoble 0 0 0-0 0, Boeve 9 0 2-4 20.
Ellsworth
Boltjes 0 2 0-0 6, Jenniges 0 0 0-1 0, Wurpts 0 0 0-0 0, Drenth 1 0 1-1 3, Ln.Leuthold 0 0 0-0 0, Jm.Leuthold 7 0 0-0 14, Groen 6 0 8-11 20.
Team statistics
H-BC: 21 of 48 field goals (44 percent), six of 13 free throws (46 percent), 26 rebounds, nine turnovers.
Ellsworth: 16 of 41 field goals (39 percent), nine of 13 free throws (69 percent), 31 rebounds, 16 turnovers.