The Buena Vista men's basketball team broke things open in the second half against Simpson College on Saturday afternoon en route to a commanding 102-75 home triumph on Senior Day.

Sophomore Kennedy Drey made 8-of-11 from the field and turned in a game-high 18 points to go along with a game-high 14 rebounds en route to his eighth double-double of the year.  Senior Brett Heitkamp had a career-day in his final regular season home game, adding 14 points and 12 boards for his second career double-double.

Fellow senior Cole Darrow chipped in with 15 points, while junior Jarod Juhl came off the bench to hit three long range buckets en route to a career-high 12 points.  Senior Alex Savage chimed in with 11 points and five assists with senior Nick Wuebker making all four of his field goal attempts for 11 points.

Junior Nick Clark was the only starter not in double figures, but did his part offensively by matching Savage with five assists.  Senior Grady Gallagher also dished out five helpers off the bench, as the Beavers dished out 26 on 38 made field goals.

Buena Vista turned in yet another solid shooting performance on its home court, finishing the contest at 57.6 percent, despite making only 6-of-21 from downtown.

Defensively, the Beavers, who lead the league in rebounding, held a 47-25 against the Storm, who came in averaging just 32 boards per contest.

Buena Vista led just 49-43 with one minute to play in the first half before hitting back-to-back baskets for a 10-point halftime lead.

After Simpson scored the first two points of the second half, BVU clamped down and went on a 9-1 run over the next five minutes for a 62-48 lead.  Simpson then hit a three-pointer to make it an 11-point contest, only to see the Beavers quickly turn around and build a 70-52 with 12 minutes to go.

A bucket and free-throw from Drey pushed the margin to 20 for the first time before a pair of free-throw from Darrow made it an 81-59 lead.

The Beavers, who locked up a top-three seed in the upcoming IIAC Tournament with the win, began to pull all of their starters with about 4:00 remaining before reaching the century mark on a made three-point bucket from Sam Lipps with under a minute to go.

Leif Olson was the lone Storm player to reach double figures in scoring, despite having six players record at least eight.  Simpson has now dropped 10 straight games since handing BVU its first conference loss of the year back in early January.

The Beavers ran their home win streak to 10 games and went unbeaten at home during the conference season for the fifth time under head coach Brian Van Haaften.  Buena Vista is currently 17-6 (10-2 IIAC) and will go after the outright IIAC title on Wednesday night when it travels to the University of Dubuque.  The Spartans (19-4, 9-3 IIAC) remain just one game back of BVU after their five-point road win at Wartburg on Saturday.

Tip-off with the Spartans is set for 8:00pm and links to live video and stats can be found at bvuathletics.com.