BANGOR — The Hillsboro girls basketball team fell three games off the pace with a 66–52 loss to league-leading Bangor on Saturday night.

Six-foot-two all-conference sophomore Emma Wittmerhaus scored a game-high 22 points and Alea Fortier made three 3-pointers and finished with 14 points as the Cardinals outscored the Tigers by 12 points in the second half.

Ariana Hundt added 10 points for the winners.

“Wittmerhaus is a defenses’ nightmare, because she’s almost impossible to match up with,” said Hillsboro head coach Scott Egan. “She’s 6’2” with a guard’s quickness. She can shoot from anywhere on the court, and she can finish with both hands in the post.  We tried several different players on her, and she was able to find ways to score on all of them.”

The first half was back and forth, with both teams splitting time with the lead.  Hillsboro’s zone defense was effective in causing tough shots for Bangor, but the Tigers struggled to finish defensive possessions, giving up 11 offensive rebounds in the first half.

However, Hillsboro’s offense was balanced and effective, keeping them close in the first half.

Bangor continued their hot shooting in the second half, and Hillsboro was not to keep up, as the Cardinals began to pull away.

“Bangor has five girls that can score the basketball from anywhere,” added Egan. “Every girl can shoot from the outside and make strong drives to the basket. They hit more tough shots than any team we’ve played this year.  That’s why it will be important to minimize mistakes in other areas, because they are such a strong offensive team.”

Sophomore Sydney Johnson scored 13 of her team-high 20 points in the second half to keep Hillsboro in the game. She also had four rebounds.

Senior Destiny Shore added 10 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals.

The Tigers finished with a season-low seven turnovers.

“I was happy overall with the girls performance in the game,” said Egan. “I base our success off of whether or not we’re improving game to game, and there was definitely a lot of improvement from our last few games.  We took care of the basketball, which is something that’s plagued us all the year. We also had great movement on offense which is another area we’ve struggled in this year.”

Cashton 55, Hillsboro 42

Last Tuesday, Egan’s Tigers suffered a frustrating 55–42 loss at Cashton.

Jamie Schmitz (16 points), Morgan Pieper (12) and Lexy Schroeder (10) all scored in double figures for the Eagles (4–5, 2–2 SBC).

Cashton led 28–21 at the half and controlled the game throughout the final 18 minutes.

Hillsboro will host Necedah  (5–5, 2–3) tonight at 7:30 p.m.,  then host New Lisbon on (4–7, 1–4) Tuesday.