OTTUMWA — Indian Hills ratcheted up every aspect of its game Saturday night against Iowa Western.

The offense? Check. The defense? Check. The crowd? Check.

Featuring an aggressive style, the Warriors topped No. 13 Iowa Western 68-62 in the critical Region XI opener. The Reivers came into the game 17-2 on the season.

Indian Hills put together its best spurt of basketball during the last three minutes of the first half. The Warriors outscored Iowa Western 14-2 to take a 31-25 lead and more importantly, all of the momentum heading into the break.

“We competed on every play,” Indian Hills coach Jeff Kidder said. “We certainly made some mistakes on both ends of the floor, but we held them to 25 points in the first half.

“I was really happy with the way the kids competed. We told them there’s a difference between playing hard and competing. Tonight they competed to win on every possession.”

Trailing 21-12, Indian Hills (15-5) started to erase any potential hangover from its last outing — a 78-73 home loss to State Fair on Jan. 7.

Dwight Buycks made back-to-back buckets — the second on a reverse layup — to jump start the Warriors and cut the deficit to 23-21. Buycks scored a team-high 16 points in the game.

Sensing Indian Hills’ change in demeanor, Iowa Western switched its defense to a 3-2 zone.

Big Mistake.

Dwight Hardy drilled a 3-pointer in the left corner, then raced down court for a layup to give Indian Hills a 26-23 advantage. On the Warriors next possession, Buycks found Leon Powell for an alley-oop dunk.

Hardy punctuated the flurry with a 3-pointer as the first half buzzer sounded. The Bronx, N.Y. native, scored eight points in the last 90 seconds and finished with 13 points in the game.

“We came out and were taking some bad shots, not rebounding — doing things we weren’t supposed to do,” forward LaRon Dendy said. “After that, coach Kidder got on us in a timeout. We came out and did what we had to do.”

Lost in the exciting run was the shutdown defense being played by the Warriors. The Reivers came into the game averaging nearly 87 points per game, but were held to just 62. Indian Hills had 16 steals and forced 22 turnovers.

The Warriors’ bench played a huge role in the dogged effort. Xavier Collier, Damian Windham and Rico Harris combined for only 11 points, but each gave valuable minutes off the bench.