The Buena Vista women's basketball team overcame an 18-point second half deficit to take a late two-point lead, but Iowa Wesleyan was able to hold on in the end and capture an 86-81 victory over the Beavers on Saturday afternoon inside of Siebens Fieldhouse.

BVU led 13-7 with just four minutes gone by a three-pointer from Lexi Fisher, but Iowa Wesleyan found the stroke from downtown and connected on 10-of-15 from downtown over the first 20 minutes to build a 15-point lead late in the half before BVU cut it to 49-39 at the break.

The Tigers weren't able to keep that hot touch going in the second half, making just 2-of-12.  BVU, despite shooting just 38.5 percent from the field overall, was able to chip away at the lead, using a key 15-1 run to get back within 58-54 at the 12:23 mark.

A three-pointer by Alex Lynott got BVU as close as 60-59 minutes later and the game was back-and-forth the rest of the way.  The Beavers tied it up at 72-72 on a three-pointer from senior Susan Kies with 3:30 left before taking their first lead since the early minutes when Kies sank a pair of free-throws for a 74-72 advantage closing in on the two minute mark.

The Tigers responded with a pair of free-throws of their own before later getting a jumper to regain the 76-74 lead with just 1:13 left.  Iowa Wesleyan went on to build a six-point advantage with under 40 seconds left, but the Beavers weren't about to go away, using a 7-2 run to get within 82-81 with just 13 seconds left.

Iowa Wesleyan (7-2) was able to sink its free-throws down the stretch, and a game-tying three-pointer from Fisher from the far corner was just off the mark, and the Tigers secured the win with a pair of late free-throws.

Kies led all scorers with 25 points and is now just eight shy of reaching 1,000 for her career. She finished the game shooting 5-of-14 from downtown and 9-of-21 overall.  She also grabbed six rebounds and dished out four assists.

Shelby Wiederhoeft followed with 16 points and six rebounds, while Malarie Gilley posted her second straight double-double, scoring 15 points and hauling in 13 rebounds, while also recording five blocks.  Fisher also reached double-digits with 14 points, to go along with seven rebounds and four assists.

Whitney Godden, who made all five of her three-point attempts in the first half, finished the game with a team-leading 23 points.

Buena Vista moves to 6-5 on the year with the game closing out the non-conference schedule for the Beavers.  The team will now get set to open Iowa Conference play this upcoming Wednesday night when it goes on the road to Coe College, who entered the day at 5-5 overall.  Tip-off is scheduled for 6:00pm.