In a game that was back-and-forth from the opening tip, it was Augsburg using a key 9-0 late in the second half that helped the Auggies take the lead and hang on for a 74-71 victory over the Buena Vista men's basketball team on Saturday night inside of Siebens Fieldhouse.

Neither team was able to mount much of a lead at any point in the contest as there were 12 ties and 12 lead changes.  In what was a low-scoring first half, it was the Beavers scoring six of the final eight points of the period to take a 31-27 lead into the half.

Senior Cole Darrow's bucket to start the second half gave the Beavers a six-point lead (33-27), and that proved to be the largest margin until fellow senior Nick Wuebker's layup with 13:28 left gave the team its largest lead of the night at 46-37.

BVU continued to lead 50-43 midway through the half following a pair of Wuebker free-throws, but that's when the Auggies rolled off nine straight points to take a 52-50 lead.  It was the first time Augsburg had been in front since leading 18-17 with 9:00 to go in the first half.

The game still never saw more than a two-point lead by either team until a three-pointer from senior Alex Savage followed by a layup from Darrow made it 64-61 in favor of the blue and gold with under four minutes to play.

Augsburg then used a 6-0 spurt to go back in front 67-64 and the Auggies never trailed the rest of the way.

BVU looked to try and force overtime at the end after Augsburg missed the front-end of a two-shot foul to give the Beavers one last change.  Junior Nick Clark, who had drilled a long three-pointer on the Beavers' previous trip down the floor, pulled up from just beyond the BVU bench but his shot rimmed out as time expired.

The Auggies (1-0) made 20-of-22 free-throw attempts over the final 20 minutes after not attempting a single free-throw in the first half.

Wuebker turned in 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting to lead four Beavers in double figures.  Darrow and Clark each followed with 13, while sophomore Kennedy Drey chipped in with 11 to go along with his game-high eight rebounds.

Buena Vista (0-1) shot 44.6 percent from the field in the contest, but went just 7-of-13 at the charity stripe.  The Beavers did outrebound the Auggies, 39-35.

BVU looks to even its record on Sunday afternoon when the team takes the court again inside of Siebens Fieldhouse to host Gustavus Adolphus.  The Gusties (1-0) downed Simpson College, 66-58, in their opener Saturday night.