Blacksburg’s Dustin Deese drives to the basket Tuesday. Never mind the Blacksburg Wildcats squeaked past Indian Land 47-46 on Tuesday to remain unbeaten. Wildcat coach Travis Miller knows his team must play better to achieve its goals this season.

“We’re not playing real hard and it showed,” Miller said. “Playing our first home game, we had a lot of jitters early. We just have to play better.”

Both teams struggled at the free throw line. The Wildcats made just 7 of their 13 free throws, including misses in the waning seconds by Rodney Poston and Tim Boyd that could have iced the game.

The Warriors were even more woeful, hitting just eight of their 23 foul shots.

Despite their free throw miseries, Indian Land had a chance to win the game, trailing by a point late in the game.

After Poston missed a front end of a one-and-one with :21.9 left in the game, Kevin McAfee misfired on a threepointer.

Boyd rebounded the miss and was fouled with :4.2 left in on the clock. His free throw missed the mark, but Willie Hood’s halfcourt heave at the buzzer came up short.

Poston had 14 points and Travis Hedgepath added 12, including nine in the second half.

“Travis bailed us out,” Miller said.

A Poston dunk put the Wildcats up 43-34 with three minutes left to play. Hood’s basket cut the deficit to five before McAfee made a three-pointer to close within 45-43.

The Wildcats hung on from there just barely.

“Defensively, we played well all night except for the fourth quarter,” Miller said. “Fundamentally, we just didn’t look good.”

Both team’s struggled offensively in the first half.

Hedgepath’s three put the Wildcats up 14-4 at the end of the first quarter.

The Wildcats led 20-12 at the end of a low-scoring first half.

Hood’s basket pulled the Warriors’ within 25-23 before Hedgepath scored three straight baskets to extend the Wildcats’ lead to 34-27 late in the third quarter.

The Wildcats, who improve to 5-0, host Chapman on Friday.