Senior  Susan Kies scored 10 of the game's first 12 points and finished with a game-high 27 to help lead the Buena Vista women's basketball team to a big 97-85 home victory over visiting Luther College on Saturday evening.

Kies made 9-of-18 attempts from the field, including four from downtown, while also making 5-of-6 at the free-throw line.  Sophomore Lacey Vokt followed by scoring a career-high 19 points, while matching her career-best eight rebounds, and also dishing out four assists.  Lexi Fisher was also in double-figures with 15 points, and so was Shelby Wiederhoeft who turned in her eighth double-double of the year with 12 points and 16 rebounds.  Jasmyn Flynn-Graves came off the bench and gave the team a spark with 12 points, four rebounds and two blocks.

As a team, the Beavers shot nearly 46 percent from the field in the contest and made 32-of-41 free-throw attempts.

BVU jumped out to an early 12-0 lead and was able to maintain that lead throughout the half and take a 48-40 halftime lead.

The Norse began the second half on a 10-4 run and got as close as 52-50 with only three minutes gone by before a three-pointer with 14:00 to go gave them their first lead of the game at 57-56.

The game was back-and-forth over the next three minutes before BVU opened up a 71-65 lead with 9:27 left.

Luther wouldn't go away, getting back as close as 75-72, but Flynn-Graves pushed the margin back to five at 77-72.

Sidney Beckman hit a pair of free-throws with 3:17 remaining to give the Beavers a six point advantage before Kies followed with a big three to extend it to nine at 86-77 with less than three minutes to go.

From there, BVU was able to secure the win at the free-throw line by making 11-of-12 attempts from the charity stripe over the final two minutes and completed the season sweep of the Norse in the process.

The win pushes Buena Vista to 10-11 overall (4-6 IIAC) and gives the Beavers a two-game lead over both Luther and Wartburg and a three-game cushion over Central College with only four regular season games left on the schedule.

Next up for the Beavers will be a pair of road games this week beginning with a key match-up at Central College on Wednesday night at 6:00pm.  BVU topped the Dutch in Storm Lake, 83-79, back on January 25.