The Hills-Beaver Creek boys’ basketball team recorded one of its most impressive wins of the season Tuesday in Hills.

Taking on a Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin team that had lost two Red Rock Conference games prior to Tuesday’s tilt, H-BC faced a stiff challenge.

The Patriots passed the test by holding off a late challenge by the Wolverines to secure an 80-75 victory.

“It was a big win for our kids,” said Patriot coach Steve Wiertzema.

“ML-B-O cut our lead down to two points in the second half, but the kids did a good job of holding their composure. We made a number of key steals defensively in this game.”

H-BC got off to a good start by opening a 40-29 lead at halftime.

ML-B-O outscored the Patriots 46-40 in the second half, but the Wolverines never did sport a lead in the stanza.

Jeff Sandbulte (27 points), Seth Nuffer (16 points, five rebounds and five steals), Dylan Gehrke (16 points) and Jordan Larson (15 points, eight assists, six steals and five rebounds) led the Patriots statistically.

The 5-11 Patriots play Southwest Star Concept in Okabena Friday.

Box score

Larson 3 2 3-4 15, Vaughn 1 0 0-0 2, Bass 1 0 0-0 2, Gehrke 2 4 0-0 16, Sandbulte 6 4 3-4 27, Klarenbeek 1 0 0-0 2, Nuffer 8 0 0-3 16.

Team statistics

H-BC: 32 of 65 field goals (49 percent), six of 12 free throws (50 percent), 20 rebounds, 12 turnovers,

ML-B-O: 33 of 62 field goals (53 percent), five of eight free throws (63 percent), 28 rebounds, 19 turnovers.