Senior Nick Clark had a monster night with a career-high 36 points, while senior Bobby Ivey and junior Sean Morgan each followed with 11, but the Buena Vista men's basketball team came up on the short end of a tough 91-86 road loss at Bethel University on Tuesday night.

Clark made 10-of-24 shots from the field, including 6-of-15 from downtown and 10-of-12 at the free-throw line, while playing 31 minutes.  Morgan just missed out on a double-double as he also chipped in with a team-leading nine rebounds. 

The Royals came out and scored the game's first 12 points before Clark ended the run with his first three-pointer of the night.  Bethel, which drilled five three-point buckets over the first five minutes, built a 21-3 lead in the early going.

BVU slowly chipped away at that lead, as a pair of free-throws by Clark with 1:01 left in the first half, got BVU within single digits for the first time since 17:50 mark.  The teams traded free-throws in the final seconds of the half as Bethel took a 50-41 lead into the break.

The Royals also began the second half strong by extending their lead right back up to 16 only four minutes in. 

Bethel continued to lead by 17 points with under 10 minutes left before the Beavers came storming back yet again.  Bobby Ivey took a feed from Clark and laid it in while also being fouled.  His free-throw got BVU back within 70-62 at the 7:18 mark.  Clark then hit a three and added two more free-throws to cut the deficit to five with 5:57 remaining.

The Royals then used a key 7-1 spurt to go back up double-digits at 81-70 with 3:17 left.  BVU, however, was not going to go away quietly, as another three-pointer by Clark with 32 seconds left made it a four-point contest at 85-81.

Bethel (4-0) wouldn't allow BVU to get any closer, as it went on to sink all six of its free-throw attempts over the final half-minute, and hang on for the five-point margin.

Bridgeport Tusler made 5-of-6 from downtown to help lead Bethel with 23 points, while Derek Magnuson made 10-of-15 shots from the field to follow with 21 points and 12 rebounds.

Buena Vista finished the game shooting 41 percent from the field. 

The loss dips BVU to 0-2 overall, and it will look to get into the win column for the first time when it travels to Augsburg College for a 7:00pm tip-off on Wednesday, November 25.