The Buena Vista women's basketball team cut a 21-point second half deficit down to just two late in regulation, but Luther College answered with eight of the game's final nine points to hang on for a 79-72 Iowa Conference victory on Saturday afternoon in Decorah.

Senior Becca Pennington sank a pair of free-throws to pull BVU within 71-69 at the 3:22 mark, but the Norse came right back down and drilled a three-pointer for a 74-69 lead.  Senior Shelby Wiederhoeft then made 1-of-2 at the line to make it 74-70, but Luther hit another long range shot to push the lead to 77-70 with just over 2:00 left.

BVU tried to put together one final push, but a turnover led to a pair of free-throws for Luther to help secure the seven-point win.

Buena Vista led 14-13 in the early going before Luther went on to build a 42-29 halftime lead.

Junior Lexi Fisher made 5-of-12 field goal attempts and all four free-throw shots to finish with a team-high 15 points.  Freshman Jasmine Demers was 4-of-7 from the floor and followed with 14 points and five rebounds off the bench.  Pennington was the third Beaver in double figures with 12 points while also grabbing five boards.

Sidney Beckman and Lacey Vokt each recorded a team-best six rebounds as BVU outrebounded the Norse, 42-35.

The Beavers shot 44.2 percent from the field, and scored 26 of their points in the paint.  Luther connected on only 37 percent, but did make 11 three-point shots compared to only three for BVU.

Megan Koepnick turned in a game-high 16 points to lead four Luther players in double figures.

Buena Vista (7-14, 2-8 IIAC) is back home for a pair of games next week, beginning with a 6:00pm tip-off on Wednesday night against Wartburg College.