The Hillsboro girls rallied from a 40-point thumping against Sterling six days earlier, but fell short of an upset against the Black Bears in their rematch Monday night in the first round of sub-state play.
Sterling prevailed on its home court, 64-48, to end the Trojans? season with a record of 8-13.
Hillsboro played with more fight on this night, but fell behind 7-0 early in the game and trailed at the end of the first quarter, 14-4.
With Sterling?s leading scorer, Kylah Comley, on the bench with foul trouble, the Trojans held their own in the second quarter and actually narrowed the deficit by halftime to 35-25 after trailing 22-8 earlier in the period.
But the Trojans got off to a slow start offensively in the third quarter, and the Bears took advantage with Comley back on the court to help rebuild the lead to 51-34 as the quarter ended.
When Alex Ratzlaff hit a pair of free throws with 3:00 left in the game, the Trojans were back within to 57-43, but the Black Bears hit their free throws down the home stretch to nail down the 16-point victory.
Ratzlaff led the Trojans with 19 points, including a 10-for-10 effort at the free-throw line. Rebecca Kaufman added eight points and Abby Sechrist seven. As a team, the Trojans had a terrific game at the line, making 18 of 20 attempts but managed only 24 percent shooting from the floor (14-58).
With the win, Sterling improves to 17-4 and will move on to the sub-state semifinals.
