By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek girls came up on the short end of a 36-33 score during a hard-fought basketball game played in Slayton Tuesday.
Taking on the Murray County Rebels in a Red Rock Conference Western Division clash, H-BC took every blow the hosts had to offer.
When it was all said and done, the Rebels simply were three points better than the Patriots on this particular night.
"I thought we played pretty well overall," said Patriot coach Tom Goehle. "It came down to MCC making a couple more shots and a couple of more free throws than we did."
The Patriots were right in the game until the end.
After facing 21-15 and 32-26 deficits at the end of the second and third quarters, the Patriots scored the first six points of the third period to knot the score at 32.
The Rebels countered with a 4-1 surge that proved to be the difference in the game when an H-BC three-point shot attempt at the end of the game missed its mark.
The Patriots, who led 13-11 after eight minutes of play, had trouble putting the ball in the basket with any consistency. H-BC made 31 percent of its field goals and 42 percent of its free throws in the contest.
Erin Boeve led H-BC with an eight-point, 10-rebound performance.
The 12-8 Patriots host conference-leading Adrian in the home finale tonight before ending the regular season in Fulda Monday.
Box score
B.Rozeboom 0 0 0-0 0, B.Olson 1 0 0-0 2, Rentschler 1 0 2-4 4, Tilstra 3 0 1-4 7, Broesder 2 0 0-0 4, S.Rozeboom 1 0 0-0 2, DeNoble 3 0 0-0 6, Boeve 3 0 2-4 8.
Team statistics
H-BC: 14 of 45 field goals (31 percent), five of 12 free throws (42 percent), 28 rebounds.
MCC: 14 of 39 field goals (36 percent), eight of 11 free throws (73 percent), 27 rebounds.