The Buena Vista men's basketball built a 15-point first half lead on Saturday at Coe College, but the Kohawks slowly chipped away in the second half and got a late jumper to knock of the league champion Beavers in the regular season finale, 69-67.

Sophomore Kennedy Drey finished with a game-high 21 points to go along with 13 rebounds, but was held to only two points after intermission.  Senior Cole Darrow followed with 14 points and seven boards wile playing a team-high 32 minutes.

Senior Alex Savage added eight points and two assists, while fellow senior Grady Gallagher came off the bench and made 2-of-3 from downtown en route to eight points, four rebounds and two assists.

As a team, the Beavers shot 40 percent from the field, but was held to under 30 percent from downtown and only got to the free-throw line nine times (making seven).

The game was close in the early going before a layup from Gallagher pushed the margin to 17-10 and forcing a Kohawk timeout.  Gallagher and fellow senior Kastantin nailed back-to-back to make it a 23-14 lead  The long ball kept falling early on for BVU, as Drey nailed one to make it a 12-point advantage with 6:46 left in the first half.

A layup by Drey late in the half made it a 40-25 advnatage for BVU before consecutive three-point buckets to end the half for the Kohawks make it a 40-31 game at the break.

Another three-pointer, followed by a layup for Coe the deficit to 40-36 just 1:42 into the second half.  It became up two-point game with five minutes gone by before the Beavers ran off seven straight points to extend the margin to 49-40 with 12:17 left.

Coe continued to stay close with the long ball, connecting on yet another to get back within six only to see BVU answer right back to make it a 55-45 lead with just over nine minutes left.

From there, the Beavers went cold, scoring just two points over the next five minutes before a three-pointer from Nick Clark made it a 60-56 lead with 3:44 on the clock.  Consecutive layups, including an and-one, gave Coe its first lead since the opening seconds of the game.

A bucket from Darrow with just over a minute left gave the Beavers a slim 66-64 advantage, but the Kohawks, who went 9-of-22 from downtown in the contest, got the final one with 53 ticks left to regain the lead at 67-66.

BVU turned it over on the ensuing possession, but got a second chance after a block from Brett Heitkamp.  Darrow came down with the rebound and was fouled, but made just 1-of-2 at the free-throw line, tying the game up at 67-all.

That set up the eventual game-winning shot by the Kohawks with just three seconds left, as Darrow's three-point attempt at the buzzer was just off the rim, snapping the team's three-game win streak.

The win gave the Kohawks (16-9, 10-4 IIAC) the second-seed into next week's Iowa Conference Tournament, while the Beavers (18-7, 11-3 IIAC) already had the top-seed locked up.

Both teams earn first round byes in the tournament with Buena Vista hosting the winner of fourth-seed Central College and fifth-seed Wartburg College on Thursday night, February 26 at 7:00pm.  The Beavers have won 10 straight games on their home court this season.