Moments after Alma had tied it with one of its 11 three-point buckets in the contest, Buena Vista sophomore Nick Clark had an answer of his own, knocking down the game-winning three-point bucket from the top of the key with only 1.6 seconds left to help send the Beavers past the Scots, 87-84, on Monday evening in the consolation game of the Nicolet National Bank Holiday Tournament, hosted by St. Norbert College.

The two team's combined for 19 made three-pointers in the contest, but it came down to the only made field goal by Clark in the contest to provide the difference.  Clark, who matched a season-high with four made triples on Sunday evening against Viterbo, finished just 1-of-4 overall from the field in this contest and finished with the three points.

Junior Cole Darrow, who was named to the All-Tournament Team, turned in a team-leading 20 points to help lead the Beavers, with fellow junior Brett Heitkamp right behind with 19 points, including 10-of-11 at the free-throw line.  Nick Wuebker was also in double-figures with 14 points, on 7-of-12 shooting.  Darrow also led the way with a team-high eight rebounds.

Grady Gallagher and Michael Kaufmann turned in two made three-pointers each to finish with eight and seven points, respectively.  As a team, the Beavers made 8-of-19 attempts from downtown and shot just over 50 percent from the field overall.  It also converted 21-of-28 attempts at the free-throw line.

Niether team was able to mount much of a lead in the contest.  BVU, which led the entire first half,  was able to build a 10-point advantage (29-19) with 7:02 left in the opening frame before Alma came back to tie it up at 34-34, but a late bucket by Wuebker gave the Beavers a 38-36 halftime lead.  Alma took its first lead of the game at 61-60 with a three-pointer midway through the second half, and the game was back-and-forth the rest of the way.

The Scots held a slim72-71 lead with under six minutes to play before a pair of free-throws from Heitkamp gave BVU the lead back, and it never trailed again.  Heitkamp hit a jumper to make it a 75-72 lead with 4:12 left, and he later hit two more free-throws to make it an 81-75 game with just more than two minutes remaining.

After Alma got back within 81-79, Darrow then hit a pair of free-throws to push it to 83-79.  The Scots responded with a made shot of their own to make it 83-81 with 42 seconds left.  Darrow converted 1-of-2 attempts at the line to make it a three-point lead with 15 seconds left, before Alma came down the court and hit a three to tie it at 84-84.  Niether team called time out and the Beavers brough the ball up court and found Clark wide open at the top of the key, and he cashed in with his only points of the game.

Following a timeout, Alma had a chance to tie things up after a long pass to within about 25 feet, but the shot from there fell short.

Buena Vista events its record at 5-5 with the win and will now play one final tune-up game this Saturday afternoon at Northwestern College (IA) in Orange City before beginning Iowa Conference play next Wednesday night on the road at Coe College.  Tip-off with the Red Raiders this weekend is scheduled for 4:00pm.