By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek boys' basketball team played its first league game as a member of the Red Rock Conference Friday in Hills.
Hosting Fulda, a squad predicted to be one of the leagueÕs best this winter, H-BC made a statement by recording a 47-46 victory.
The Patriots didn't have their best offensive performance of the season, but hard work on defense and keeping things close on the boards carried them to a one-point win.
"We played all right," said Patriot coach Steve Wiertzema. "We didn't shoot the ball quite as well as we would have liked, but we played hard, we played good defense and we kept them off the boards."
A rough night at the charity stripe (10 of 24) nearly cost the Patriots the win late in the game.
H-BC never trailed in the fourth quarter, but two missed free throws by the Patriots gave the Raiders a chance to erase a 47-46 deficit late in the game. Fulda, however, missed a shot at the buzzer that would have changed the outcome of the game.
The Patriots opened a 15-8 lead in the first quarter before Fulda pulled to within two points (25-23) of the hosts by outscoring them 15-10 in the second quarter.
H-BC increased its lead to four points (39-35) in the third quarter before winning by one point in the end.
Brad Haak and Matt Buck tossed in 13 points each to lead the Patriots, while David Top added 11 counters.
Top had five rebounds and four assists, Buck had four assists and Haak led the way with six rebounds. Jesse Leuthold added five rebounds to the winning cause.
Box score
D.DeBoer 2 0 2-3 6, Van Maanen 0 1 0-0 3, Haak 5 0 3-9 13, Leuthold 0 0 1-2 1, L.DeBoer 0 0 0-1 0, Top 1 2 3-7 11, Buck 6 0 1-2 13.
Team statistics
H-BC: 17 of 49 field goals (35 percent), 10 of 24 free throws (42 percent), 24 rebounds, six turnovers.
Fulda: 17 of 49 field goals (35 percent), six of nine free throws (67 percent), 29 rebounds, nine turnovers.