By John RittenhouseApplying pressure defense and hitting shots from long range carried the Hills-Beaver Creek girls basketball team to a 54-43 win over Russell-Tyler-Ruthton in Hills Monday.H-BC’s relentless defense forced R-T-R to cough up the ball 20 times in the game. A couple of the turnovers led to some of the seven three-point shots made by the home team.In the end, it was a combination of tough defense and sharp shooting that gave the Patriots their 12th win of the campaign.R-T-R scored the first three points of the game before H-BC put together a 9-0 run capped by a field goal from Cassi Tilstra at the 3:00 mark of the first quarter to give the hosts a six-point (9-3) cushion.The Knights trimmed the difference to five points (12-7) by the end of the first quarter and trailed 12-10 in the second period before H-BC’s Brittney Rozeboom drained a three-point shot during a 5-2 spurt to leave the Patriots with a 17-12 lead with 2:37 left in the first half.R-T-R closed the gap to three points (20-17) at halftime and trailed by one (20-19) early in the third quarter, but the Patriots countered with a 20-6 run that ended with Chelsi Fink hitting a three at the 1:06 mark of the third period to give the Patriots a 40-25 advantage.H-BC extended its lead to 18 points (48-30) when Stacy Bush hit a shot from three-point land with 6:09 remaining in the fourth quarter.The Knights, however, scored the next 10 points to trail 48-40 with less than three minutes left to play. H-BC thwarted R-T-R’s challenge by outscoring the Knights 6-3 the rest of the way to win by 11.Cassi Tilstra led the Patriots with 15 points and eight assists in the contest. Kerri Fransman contributed eight rebounds and three steals to the winning cause. Kelly Mulder added eight rebounds.Box scoreRozeboom 2 1 0-0 7, Fransman 0 3 0-0 9, Bush 2 1 2-4 9, Feucht 2 0 3-4 7, Fink 1 1 0-0 5, Tilstra 5 1 2-2 15, Koozenboom 0 0 0-0 0, Mulder 1 0 0-0 2.Team statisticsH-BC: 20 of 55 field goals (36 percent), seven of 10 free throws (70 percent), 30 rebounds, 13 turnovers.R-T-R: 16 of 48 field goals (33 percent), five of 18 free throws (28 percent), 29 rebounds, 20 turnovers.