There are four regular season games left to be played, and the Buena Vista women's basketball team sits one game behind league-leading Luther College for a spot atop the Iowa Conference standings.  The Beavers will look to at least maintain its spot which begins tonight with a road contest at Central College at 6:00pm.

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Last Time out:

Buena Vista was virtually in control from the opening tip on Saturday afternoon as it moved a game closer to Luther with an 81-71 victory at home over the Norse.  Lexi Fisher and Jasmyn Flynn-Graves each turned in 17 points for BVU, including a trio of three's by Fisher that made her only the second player in program history to reach 200 makes in her career.  BVU shot 9-of-15 from downtown in the opening half to build its lead and finished the contest with 12.

Looking ahead:

Following Wednesday's road test against the Dutch, the Beavers will get set to play its final regular season home game of the year on Saturday afternoon with a 2:00pm tip-off against Loras College on Senior Day.  The Duhawks enter the week just one game back of BVU in the IIAC standings and edged the Beavers, 73-71, on a buzzer-beating shot early in the conference schedule.  BVU will then be on the road at Simpson (2/17) and Coe (2/20) to wrap up the regular season next week.

BVU vs. Central:

The Beavers rolled to a 99-45 home victory over the Dutch back on January 23.  BVU led 26-6 after one quarter and never looked back, as it outscored Central 42-15 from three-point range. Fisher scored a team-high 19 points, including three treys to help lead BVU, as fellow senior Becca Pennington scored 18 points and dished out five assists.  Five players were in double figures as BVU shot nearly 46 percent from the field.  Defesively, Lacey Vokt grabbed seven rebounds and also chipped in with five assists.

The Dutch made just 5-of-20 from downtown and shot under 29 percent from the field overall.  

BVU vs. Loras

The Beavers played their first road conference game of the year against the Duhawks and were in position to improve to 2-0 in league play.  BVU led by two at the half and entering the fourth quarter.  After a jumper by Flynn-Graves extended the Buena Vista lead to three at 68-65 with 2:40 to go, Loras came back with six straight points to take a three-point advantage of its own with 42 seconds left.  Fisher drilled a three to even things up at 71-71 with 22 seconds left before a basket by Lori Obdendorf with just seconds left ended it.  Obendorf is the only IIAC player in league play averaging more than 10.0rpg and is just shy of averaging a double-double for the conference season (9.9ppg, 10.5rpg).

That win by Loras was the fifth straight victory in the series for the Duhawks.  BVU has just two wins against Loras since the start of the 2010-11 campaign.  The two teams will be battling for one of the top two spots in the IIAC standings and a first round bye into the IIAC Tournament which begins on February 23.

BVU GAME NOTES:

IIAC Tournament: The Beavers have already clinched a spot into this year's Iowa Conference Tournament which begins on Tuesday, February 23.  It's just the second time in the last four years BVU has made the tournament after having never missed since the tournament began.

Reining 3's: Senior Lexi Fisher went 3-of-6 from downtown in Saturday's win over the Norse and became just the second player in school history to reach 200 career three-point makes.  She joins Katie Maguire who ended her career with a school-record 238.  Junior Sidney Beckam is trying to keep pace and moved into sole possession fourth with 141.

Fighting for the top spot: BVU is going after its first IIAC regular season title since winning consecutive ones in 2003-04 and 2004-05.

Comfort on the Road: BVU is a solid 6‐2 in true road games this season. Both losses were in IIAC play and by a combined six points. The team has outscored their opponents on the road by an average of eight points per game this season and is shooting nearly 35 percent from downtown (70‐of‐202).

Ranking High...Buena Vista is the only team in the Iowa Conference to have multiple players ranked in the top‐13 in the league in scoring thru 10 conference contests.  Heading into today's game, Jasmyn Flynn‐Graves is 3rd (16.2ppg), Becca Pennington is 11th (12.8ppg) and Lexi Fisher is 13th at 12.4ppg.

Among the National Leaders...BVU is ranked 14th in Division III in scoring average (76.2ppg) and fourth in three ‐point makes (196). It's also 28th in assist‐to‐turnover ratio (1.05). Sidney Beckman is 23rd in three‐point makes (57) with Lexi Fisher at 69th (49).