ST PAUL, Minn. - Despite having its 16-point first half lead trimmed down to five early in the second half, the Buena Vista men's basketball team still managed to hold off Northwestern-St. Paul on the road, 87-78, on Saturday afternoon inside of the Ericksen Center.

DJ McNeal turned in a career-high 19 points in the contest by going 6-of-12 from the field overall, including a career-best 3-of-6 from long range.  Robert Hawkins followed by going 6-of-11 from the floor to finish with 15 points and eight rebounds.  BVU shot 50.2 percent from the floor making it the first time since the season-opener that it was better than 50 percent overall.  

Brendan Gary scored a career-high for the second straight contest, turning in 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting, to go along with rebounds.  BVU had balanced scoring all game long with seven players registering at least eight points in the game.

The Beavers used a big second half at the free-throw line to help put the game away down the stretch, going 10-of-11, while the Eagles were just 5-of-7 from the entire game.

Northwestern-St. Paul scored the game's first basket of the game to go in front 2-0, but the Beavers responded with an 11-2 spurt and seized control from there.  The lead grew to 34-18 with 8:42 left in the opening half and the team appeared to be in position to run away with the game.  Northwestern-St. Paul cut the deficit down to eight late in the half, but the Beavers took a 50-38 lead into the break.

It turned into a battle in the second half as the Eagles came out strong, using a 14-5 charge over the first six minutes to claw back within 55-52.  After the Beavers pushed it back to a double-digit lead at 70-60, the Eagles again stormed right back with nine straight to make it a one-point contest with 5:05 remaining.

Michael Demers and DJ McNeal hit consecutive three-pointers to push the lead back to four after the Eagles had cut the lead to one.  It was still just a four-point lead with one minute to play, but the Beavers made the most of their opportunities at the charity stripe, connecting on six straight inside the final minute, to help snap a three-game losing streak and pick up their first road win of the year.

Michael Moore led all scorers with a game-high 23 points for the Eagles, who are now 5-5 overall.

Buena Vista improves to 4-5 on the year and returns to action on Monday afternoon when it travels to Westminster College (Mo.) for a 2:00 p.m. game against the Bluejays.