The Buena Vista men's basketball team made its first 11 three-point shots on Saturday afternoon, and the stellar shooting throughout helped the Beavers knock of #20 UW-Platteville, 98-80, in its home opener inside of Siebens Fieldhouse.

Sophomore Nick Clark, buried all four of his long range attempts and finished with a game-high 20 points, while junior Cole Darrow went 4-of-5 from downtown and followed with 18.  Clark also made 6-of-8 attempts at the free throw line, while also dishing out five assists.  Darrow grabbed seven rebounds and also dished out a career-best six assists.  The four three-point makes match the single-game career-high for both players.

Also getting in on the scoring were Alex Savage with 15 points, on 5-of-6 shooting, and both Greg Sibenaller and Grady Gallagher who each added 10.  Gallagher made both of his three-point attempts and connected on all four free-throw attempts, while matching a career-high with four assists.

As a team, BVU shot 58.2 percent overall in the contest, including 12-of-14 from downtown.  The team also made 22-of-28 at the free-throw line and had 22 assists on 32 made field goals.

The Pioneers hit one of their seven three-point buckets to build an early 14-5 lead before BVU started to slowly chip away at that lead.  Back-to-back three-pointers from Darrow and Gallagher tied things up at 19-19 midway through the first half.

The game was again tied at 23-23 and at 28-28 before a dunk by Nick Wuebker and consecutive three-pointers by Clark gave BVU a 36-28 lead with just over a minute to play.  Sibenaller added a layup to push the margin into double-digits for the first time, but the Pioneers got a buzzer-beater from just inside the halfcourt line at the buzzer to get within 38-31 at the break.

Back-to-back jumpers from Savage and Darrow to start the second half made it a 42-31 advantage. The Beavers maintained that 11-point margin until they hit four straight triples, including three in a row by Darrow to make it a 63-46 lead with 13:12 to go.

The lead grew to as many as 22 after a Clark three-pointer with 11:40 to play.

UW-P got back within 15 (78-63) with just under five minutes to go, but the Beavers made 17-of-18 at the line from there to hand the Pioneers their second straight loss.

Buena Vista improves to 2-3 overall and will return to the court again on Tuesday night when the team hosts Martin Luther College as part of a women/men doubleheader.  Tip-off for the men's contest is scheduled for 8:00pm.