Hills-Beaver Creek senior Megan Westrum protects the ball from Luverne’s McKayla Schilling during Monday’s game in Hills. H-BC fell behind by 30 points early in the game and couldn’t recover during what ended as a 57-29 loss.
The Hills-Beaver Creek girls fell into a hole they couldn’t climb out of when they hosted Luverne for a non-conference basketball game Monday in Hills.
The Patriots found themselves facing a 30-point deficit 10:19 into the game.
H-BC rallied to outscore LHS 27-25 the rest of the night, but it wasn’t enough to climb back into contention during what ended as a 57-29 loss for the Patriots.
LHS scored the game’s first 14 points on the way to opening a 32-2 advantage with 7:41 remaining in the first half.
H-BC trimmed the difference to 26 points (32-8) when Paige Leuthold converted a field goal at 5:12, but the Cards scored the next eight points to open a 40-8 cushion with 2:16 remaining in the first half.
Taylor Wingert scored for H-BC with 23 seconds remaining to make it a 27-point difference (40-13) before Luverne scored the final two points of the half to lead 42-13 at the break.
Trailing 49-17 with 12:54 left in the game, H-BC put together an 11-0 run capped by a field goal from Kelli Esselink to make it a 21-point (49-28) difference with 6:22 remaining.
H-BC, however, couldn’t cut into Luverne’s advantage the rest of the night and fell by 28 points at game’s end.
Leuthold scored nine points, collected six rebounds and charted three steals for H-BC.
Esselink, Megan Westrum and Wingert grabbed 10, nine and seven rebounds respectively, while Hattie Van Wyhe registered three steals.
The 4-3 Patriots attempt to snap a four-game slide when they play Murray County Central Friday in Slayton.
