The Buena Vista men's basketball team has put itself into great position to win its ninth regular season Iowa Conference title, and the Beavers can secure that crown tonight with a road win at the University of Dubuque.

The two teams will take the court inside of the Stoltz Sports Center seperated by just one game.  The Beavers (17-6, 10-2 IIAC), who hold the one-game lead, maintained that advantage after picking up a pair of pivotal home wins last week, including a 102-75 rout of Simpson College on Saturday afternoon.  That win pushed BVU's home win streak to 10 games.

Dubuque, meanwhile, has been nearly as tough since suffering a loss to BVU (85-78) in Storm Lake back on January 17.  Since that setback, the Spartans (19-4, 8-3 IIAC) have gone 7-1 with its only loss in that stretch coming at Coe College, which is currently one game back of Dubuque.

Tonight will be a match-up of the league's top-two scoring teams with BVU leading the way at 80.2ppg.  Dubuque is also tops in the league in allowing just 65.1ppg and outscoring conference foes by more than 12 points per contest.

BVU is connecting on a league-high 48 percent of its field goal attempts and is third with 91 made three-point buckets.  The Spartans, meanwhile, sit right behind the Beavers at 44 percent, and the two teams are second and third in field goal defense and the top-two teams at defending the three-point line.

As physical as the first meeting was, this one has the making to be even more of a battle.  The two teams are also in the top-three in rebounding, led by BVU at 42.1 per outing.  Dubuque, with its lenghth on defense is also leading the way with 3.58 blocks per contest and is more than two steals better than second-place (9.67).

Andre Norris comes in leading the IIAC in scoring at just under 20 points per contest (19.4ppg).  Greg Heffernan is not far behind in ninth (14.8ppg).  Those two combined for 32 of the team's points in the first meeting this season, despite Norris being held to only 3-of-13 shooting from the field.

Cole Darrow comes in averaging 14.9 points during IIAC play for the Beavers (8th) with Nick Clark (14.0ppg) and Kennedy Drey (13.5ppg) sitting 10th and 11th, respectively.  Drey, the reigning IIAC Performer fo the Week, will look to counter the length of the Spartans with the versatility of his own.  He comes in ranked fourth in field goal percentage at better than 55 percent and is leading the way in rebounding (11.3rpg).  He's one of just two players in the conference to currently average a double-double against league foes.

Clark, who made four three-pointers in the first meeting, is second in the league this season in three-point makes.  As a team, the Beavers went 10-of-28 from long distance in that contest (35 percent), while holding Dubuque to just 9-of-35 (25 percent).

Savage dished out a game-leading six assists in that contest and comes in averaging better than 5.1 per outing during conference play which is nearly two more per game than the next closest.  He is also the one BVU will want at the free-throw line if the game comes down to it in the closing minutes, as he has missed just once in conference play (24-of-25).

Dubuque has lost only once at home all season long (5-1) and has won three straight - all by an average of 23 points.  It's only setback on its home court came to Wartburg (74-63) one week before its loss to the Beavers.

The last two meetings between the two teams in Dubuque have come down to the wire and decided by two points each time.  The Spartans clipped BVU last season, 65-63, after the Beavers took a 70-68 (OT) contest the year before.  BVU is 7-3 in its last 10 games aginast Dubuque inside of the Stoltz Sports Center.

Tip-off of tonight's match-up is scheduled for 8:00pm.  Links to live stats and video can be found at bvuathletics.com.  A victory by the Beavers would mark its second IIAC title in the last three years.