By John RittenhouseThe Hills-Beaver Creek girls basketball team bounced back from a tough home loss last Thursday to post a pair of impressive home wins early this week.Murray County Central nipped the Patriots by two points in Hills Thursday. H-BC then handed Russell-Tyler-Ruthton and Southwest Christian 11- and 18-point setbacks on Monday and Tuesday respectively.H-BC, 13-8 overall, hosts Edgerton Public Friday.H-BC 41, SWC 23Outstanding play on defense enabled the Patriots to hand Southwest Christian its second loss of the season Tuesday in Hills.H-BC limited the E-Gals to two points in the first quarter and six points in the second period while opening a 24-8 lead.The difference remained at 16 points (34-18) before H-BC used a 7-5 scoring edge in the fourth quarter to win by 18."Our girls did a fantastic job of playing team defense," said Patriot coach Tom Goehle. "We played extremely smart on defense. Our spacing was good and our awareness was excellent."Cassi Tilsta led H-BC with 16 points and nine rebounds. Kelly Mulder collected six rebounds and blocked five shots. Melinda Feucht charted four steals.Box scoreRozeboom 2 0 3-4 7, Fransman 0 1 0-0 3, Bush 0 1 0-0 3, Feucht 4 0 0-1 8, Tilstra 6 1 1-1 16, Mulder 2 0 0-0 4.Team statisticsH-BC: 17 of 40 field goals (43 percent), four of six free throws (67 percent), 28 rebounds, 16 turnovers.SWC: 10 of 46 field goals (22 percent), two of five free throws (40 percent), 22 rebounds, 17 turnovers.H-BC 54, R-T-R 43A strong second half helped the Patriots turn a close game into an 11-point victory when they squared off against the Knights in Hills Monday.H-BC sported five- and three-point cushions at the end of the first and second quarters respectively. The Patriots, however, outscored R-T-R 34-26 in the second half to win handily.The Knights scored the first two points of the second half to trim what was a 20-17 lead for the Patriots to one point (20-19). H-BC answered the challenge by mounting a 20-6 run capped by Chelsi Fink’s three-point shot with 1:06 left in the third quarter to open a 15-point (40-25) advantage.The Patriots increased their lead to 18 points (48-40) when Stacy Bush drained a three-point shot at the 6:09 mark of the third quarter, but the Knights battled back with a 10-0 run to trail 48-40 with 2:58 left to play.H-BC thwarted the late challenge by R-T-R by outscoring the visitors 6-3 the rest of the way to ice its 12th win of the season.Tilstra scored 15 points and recorded eight assists to lead the Patriots in both categories. Kerri Fransman, who charted three steals, and Mulder ripped down eight rebounds each.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.MCC 39, H-BC 37A cold night of shooting for the Patriots led to a two-point setback when they squared off against the Rebels in Hills Thursday.Being limited to 28 percent shooting from the floor and converting less than 50 percent of its free throws sealed H-BC’s fate."We outplayed them in every facet most of the game. We just didn’t shoot the ball very well," said Patriot coach Goehle.H-BC did trim a 29-22 deficit entering the fourth quarter to two points (39-37) when Fink converted a free throw with 30 seconds remaining in the game. The Patriots, however, missed out on a bid to tie the game when two field-goal attempts in the final 10 seconds missed the mark.Tilstra scored 16 points to go along with seven rebounds and five assists for H-BC. Mulder added seven rebounds and blocked three shots.Box scoreRozeboom 1 01-4 3, Fransman 0 1 0-0 3, Bush 1 1 0-0 5, Feucht 0 0 2-2 2, Fink 0 0 1-2 1, Tilstra 7 0 2-5 16, Mulder 3 0 1-2 7.Team statisticsH-BC: 14 of 50 field goals (28 percent), seven of 15 free throws (47 percent), 28 rebounds, 10 turnovers.MCC: 18 of 39 field goals (46 percent), three of six free throws (50 percent), 26 rebounds, 14 turnovers.