Hills-Beaver Creek’s Kelli Esselink grabs a rebound in front of Adrian’s Courtney Vaske (42) and Elizabeth Thier (13) during Thursday’s Red Rock Conference girls’ basketball game in Hills. Adrian posted a 42-29 win over the Patriots.
The Hills-Beaver Creek girls dropped their fifth-straight basketball game when it squared off against Adrian Thursday in Hills.
The Patriots matched blows with the Dragons early in the game, but Adrian took advantage of an extend run late in the first half to set the stage for a 42-29 victory.
The score was knotted at two, five and seven in the early stages of the contest before H-BC gained its first lead (9-7) when Meghan Leuthold converted a field goal at the 9:22 mark of the first half.
H-BC led 10-9 when Taylor Wingert sank one free throw as the first half progressed, but Adrian countered with a 14-0 run to open a 23-10 lead with 2:13 remaining in the opening stanza.
The Dragons led 26-12 at the intermission and expanded their advantage to 19 points (31-12) by scoring the first five points of the second half.
A 5-1 H-BC surge capped by a Paige Leuthold turning an offensive rebound into a field goal made it a 15-point difference (32-17) with 11:04 left to play.
Adrian, however, responded by putting together an 8-1 run to increase its lead to 22 points (40-18) with 7:42 remaining.
H-BC outscored the Dragons 11-2 the rest of the night to make it a 13-point difference at game’s end.
Paige Leuthold scored eight points and collected five caroms for the H-BC.
Hattie Van Wyhe and Meghan Leuthold snared 10 and five rebounds respectively, while Haley Van Wyhe recorded four assists for the Patriots.
