The Hills-Beaver Creek girls’ basketball team played three conference games this past week, winning two and losing one. They also won one non-conference matchup.
The Patriots fell to the Dutchmen 67-49 in Edgerton Jan. 24, they beat MCC 59-47 at home Jan. 27, took down RCC 49-47 on the road Jan. 28, and beat Alcester-Hudson 74-33 Jan. 30.
The Patriots, now 8-11 for the season and 6-5 in Red Rock Conference play, were scheduled to travel to St. Mary Tuesday, Jan. 31, and they’ll host Southwest Christian Monday, Feb. 6.
Edgerton 67, H-BC 49
The H-BC girls’ basketball team fell to the Dutchmen 67-49 Tuesday, Jan. 24, on the road.
“Edgerton girls are a tough squad. They play great defense and crash boards like crazy,” said Patriots head coach Dylan Gehrke.
Defensively Edgerton grabbed 23 rebounds in the game and forced the Patriots to hurry their passes.
“We have to do a better job of valuing the basketball. What killed us in this game was the 16 first half turnovers. We had 20 total for the game,” Gehrke said.
“We also got into a little bit of foul trouble that didn't help. Both Olivia Deelstra and Lanae (Elbers) had three fouls in the first half.”
Edgerton built a good lead, closing the first half with a 26-15 lead.
“We cut it to four points in the second half after being down big in the first half, but then Edgerton hit a few shots from the perimeter that put the game away,” Gehrke said.
Eighth-grader Olivia Deelstra led the Patriots’ scoring with 16 points. She also grabbed four rebounds and four steals and finished with three fouls.
Junior Layla Deelstra added 12 points, four rebounds, six assists and three steals.
Senior Lanae Elbers posted 10 points, seven big rebounds and one steal.
Other Patriot scorers were freshman Abbie Harris with six points, junior Brynn Rauk with four points and junior Larissa Steinhoff with one free throw.
H-BC 59, MCC 47
The Lady Pates basketball team hosted Murray County Central, beating the Rebels 59-47 Friday, Jan. 27.
“I thought our girls did a great job staying strong and handling a little adversity of being down at halftime,” Gehrke said.
“We came out tough in the second half and finished the game off.”
Olivia Deelstra scored 24 of the Patriots’ 59 points. She also grabbed nine rebounds and six steals and posted two blocked shots and an assist.
Harris had eight points, six rebounds and one steal.
Freshman Claire Knobloch came off the bench to contribute seven points, one rebound, one assist and one blocked shot.
Elbers finished the night with six points, seven rebounds, four assists, two steals and five blocked shots.
Rauk added six points, seven rebounds, two assists and one blocked shot.
Three other Patriot players helped with scoring.
Layla Deelstra had five points, Steinhoff had two, and Hadley Spath had one point.
“Our intensity on defense was a big contributor to why we came away with the W. I love to watch the girls fly around like they did,” Gehrke said.
H-BC 49, RRC 47
H-BS girls’ basketball traveled to Red Rock Central and stole the game by two, 49-47, from the Falcons Saturday, Jan. 28.
“This was a pretty exciting game that came down to the wire,” Gehrke said.
H-BC started the first half building an 18-10 lead before RRC scored a couple of threes on a 16-6 run to end the half.
“I’m so proud of our girls’ fight and determination to win,” Gehrke said.
“We were down 40-29 in the second half with about 10 minutes left and ended up going on a 20-7 run to end the game.”
It came down to the final 6.3 seconds with the score tied 47-47, and a baseline out-of-bounds play under the Patriots’ basket.
“We called timeout, and our coaching staff came up with a quick hitter lob to our post Lane Elbers,” Gehrke said.
“The girls executed it to perfection. Layla Deelstra with her most important assist of the game, made a perfect lob pass to Elbers for a contested left-handed layup to put us up 49-47.”
RRC would inbound the ball but was not able to get a shot up as time ran out.
Olivia Deelstra had a huge double-double for the Patriots with 14 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, five steals and two blocked shots.
Elbers posted 10 points, two coming from the game-winning layup, along with eight rebounds and four blocked shots.
Layla Deelstra added four points, five assists including the game-winning pass to Elbers, and five steals.
Harris netted nine points, eight rebounds, four assists and four steals.
Rauk made five points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Steinhoff added two points of her own, two rebounds and three steals.
“It was definitely a game I will not forget as a coach and the girls will not forget either,” Gehrke said.
“It’s always fun to come out on top of those kinds of games.”
H-BC 74, Alcester 33
H-BC hosted Alcester-Hudon beating them 74-33 Monday, Jan. 30
“In the first half we had troubles stopping Alcester- Hudson’s post, she had 21 in the first half and 33 total for the game,” Gehrke said.
“Our pressure in the second half helped us go on a run to pull away and win by double digits.”
Offensively the Patriots spread the ball around and many girls scoring in the game.
Rauk posted 22 big points for the Patriots.
Elbers added 19 points and Olivia Deelstram made 15.
Layla Deelstra netted 10 points for the night.
Harris and Bork added three points each and Wysong contributed 2 points.