By John Rittenhouse
A stunning loss to Southwest Christian all but ended Hills-Beaver Creek's chances for a Red Rock Conference Western Division girls' basketball championship Thursday in Hills.
H-BC, a team that beat the E-Gals by 10 points when they squared off in Edgerton Dec. 6, couldnÕt put anything together offensively in the rematch.
The cold-shooting hosts were limited to 21-percent field goal efficiency in what turned into a 51-31 setback.
The loss was H-BC's fourth in RRC play, and it has three games left to play. The Patriots would be eliminated from the title hunt with one more loss or one more win from Adrian, which has a 12-1 league record.
As one might expect, H-BC's shooting woes caused defeat against SWC.
"From the beginning of the game until the end, we really struggled offensively," said Patriot coach Tom Goehle. "It was just a poor shooting night for us. They deserve some credit for playing good defense, but the main thing was we had a hard time getting anything to go down."
The Patriots were limited to six points while falling behind by seven points (13-6) during the first eight minutes of play.
The E-Gals increased their lead to eight points (24-16) by halftime before using a 10-7 scoring advantage in the third quarter to make it an 11-point (34-23) difference heading into the final eight minutes of play.
SWC went on a 17-8 scoring run in the final period to win by a 20-point margin.
Erin Boeve's double-double consisting of 11 points and 11 rebounds was the highlight of the game for H-BC. She also had six blocked shots.
Becky Broesder snared nine rebounds for the Patriots.
Box score
B.Olson 1 0 2-2 4, Feucht 1 0 0-0 2, Rentschler 1 0 0-2 2, Tilstra 2 0 0-0 4, Broesder 1 0 2-4 4, S.Rozeboom 1 0 2-2 4, DeNoble 0 0 0-0 0, Boeve 3 0 5-6 11, A.Olson 0 0 0-0 0.
Team statistics
H-BC: 10 of 48 field goals (21 percent), 11 of 16 free throws (69 percent), 31 rebounds, 19 turnovers.
SWC: 18 of 52 field goals (35 percent), 13 of 18 free throws (72 percent), 34 rebounds, 13 turnovers.