By John Rittenhouse
Hills-Beaver Creek made a bid to knock off one of the top teams in the Red Rock Conference when it hosted Fulda in a girls' basketball game played in Hills Monday.
H-BC rallied from what was an 11-point deficit in the first half to knot the score at 34 early in the fourth quarter, but the Raiders outscored the Patriots 7-4 the rest of the way to post a 41-38 win.
After Becky Broesder, who led H-BC with 12 points, gave the Patriots a 4-2 lead with a field goal early in the first quarter, the Raiders put together a 13-2 run to move in front 15-6 before Jody DeNoble scored for H-BC at the buzzer to make it a 15-8 game at period's end.
Fulda increased its lead to 11 points (19-8) early in the second quarter before H-BC went on an 8-0 run capped by Jody Rentschler's field goal with 3:00 remaining to make the difference 19-16. The Raiders ended the period with a 7-2 spurt to take a 26-18 advantage at the intermission.
The third quarter belonged to the Patriots as they trimmed Fulda's lead to four points three times, with the last occasion coming when Shanna Tilstra made a shot at the buzzer to make it a 34-30 difference.
Field goals by Erin Boeve and Jamie Arp in the first 2:30 of the fourth quarter knotted the score at 34, and the Patriots trailed by one (39-38) when Boeve drained two free throws with 16 seconds left.
Fulda, however, received a pair of free throws by Erin Oakland with 14 seconds remaining to make it a 41-38 game, and the score remained that way when Tilstra's potential game-tying three-point shot drew iron with three seconds left.
Boeve finished the game with 10 points, eight rebounds and four steals. Brittney Olson and Broesder had five and four assists respectively for H-BC.
Box score
Olson 1 0 0-0 2, Sandstede 0 0 0-0 0, Rentschler 2 0 0-0 4, Tilstra 2 0 2-2 6, Broesder 6 0 0-1 12, DeNobel 1 0 0-0 2, Boeve 3 0 4-10 10, DeHaan 0 0 0-0 0, Arp 1 0 0-0 2.
Team statistics
H-BC: 15 of 46 field goals (33 percent), sic of 13 free throws (46 percent), 22 rebounds, 13 turnovers.
Fulda: 15 of 39 field goals (38 percent), nine of 15 free throws (60 percent), 24 rebounds, 18 turnovers.