The Buena Vista men's basketball team closed the game on a 19-9 run against Simpson College on Wednesday night and held off the Storm, 86-75, to earn their third straight win to begin Iowa Conference play.

BVU held a 63-53 lead before Simpson used a 11-2 run to get within 65-64 with 7:30 to play.  The team's then traded buckets to make it a 67-66 Beaver lead before back-to-back three-point shots from Nick Clark and Grady Gallagher, respectively, helped the Beavers push the margin to 73-66 with 5:30 left.

After the team's again traded buckets to keep the difference at seven, Gallagher hit his second three down the stretch to make it a 78-68 lead with 4:31 remaining.

Simpson came back with a three of its own on the next possession to stay within striking distance, but a dunk from Nick Wuebker off a feed from Clark made it 82-73 with just over a minute showing on the clock.

BVU got the stops it needed at the defensive end over the final 1:30 and sealed the game at the free-throw line by making two of the final four attempts.

Cole Darrow finished with a game-high 19 points, on 7-of-16 shooting, while grabbing six rebounds and dishing out three assists.  Wuebker followed with his fifth double-double of the year, scoring 16 points and grabbing a season-best 13 rebounds.

Gallagher came off the bench and matched his career-high with 11 points, including 3-of-3 from downtown, as Brett Heitkamp again came off the bench with a solid performance, scoring 12 points and hauling in eight boards.

As a team, the Beavers shot 50 percent from the field and made 6-of-17 from downtown, while holding the Storm to just 39.7 percent shooting and only 4-of-17 from long range.  They also held a 48-28 advantage on the glass.

Charles Swain and Chad Gutschenritter each turned in 18 points to pace Simpson (2-12, 0-3 IIAC).

Buena Vista has now won three straight games overall and improves to 8-6 (3-0 IIAC).  The team will look to take sole possession of first place in the Iowa Conference when it plays at the University of Dubuque (14-0, 3-0 IIAC) on Saturday afternoon in a 4:00pm tip-off.