Men's Basketball | 12/9/2019 1:37:00 PM

STORM LAKE, Iowa (December 9, 2019) - In what will be its final contest of the calendar year, the Buena Vista men's basketball team will step out of American Rivers Conference play to host Faith Baptist Bible College on Thursday night inside of Siebens Fieldhouse.

Game Details
Thursday, December 12, 2019 | Storm Lake, Iowa | Siebens Fieldhouse
Faith Baptist (3-4) at Buena Vista (9-1) | 6 p.m.

Broadcast Information
Live Video: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/bvu/
Live Stats: https://bvuathletics.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary

Last Time Out
The Beavers bounced back from their first loss of the season by taking down visiting Wartburg College, 89-75, on Saturday night inside of Siebens Fieldhouse.  The win was the seventh straight home victory for the Beavers, dating back to last season.  Senior Timothy Jeffries was 10-of-12 shooting from the floor and finished with a game-high 26 points.  Junior Dominic Sesma went 4-of-7 from behind the arc and turned in 20 points.  As a team, BVU shot better than 54 percent from the field overall, including a 12-of-31 effort from downtown.

About Faith Baptist
Faith Baptist Bible College And Theological Seminary is located in Ankeny, Iowa, and is a member of the National Christian College Athletic Association.  The Eagles have dropped back-to-back games, including a 65-64 setback at Maranatha Baptist University on Saturday.  BVU will mark the second A-R-C opponent the team has faced this season, as they played Simpson College in an exhibition game back on November 14 and fell to the Storm, 122-73.  Four players come in averaging double figures in scoring, led by Nathan Keck's 23.4ppg.  He also holds a slight edge in rebounds per game at 9.4rpg.  The team has scored over 90 points on three occasions this season, including a 107-point outburst during a 107-70 victory over Trinity Bible College.

About Buena Vista
The Beavers look to make it back-to-back wins heading into the holiday break as they continue on one of their best starts in school history.  The 8-0 start matched the best output to begin a season before the team suffered a tough 78-65 road loss at 6th-ranked Nebraska Wesleyan to begin A-R-C play last Wednesday night.  Despite the lowest scoring output for the team this season, it remains one of the top scoring teams in the league at 90.1ppg.  The Beavers have made a league-high 116 three-point buckets on the year and are the only team in triple digits.  The team is shooting 34.6 percent from long range and averages over 11.0 makes per game.  Jeffries is the team's leading scorer and ranks fourth in the A-R-C at 19.3ppg.  He's also fifth in the conference in field goal percentage (56.3%) and in free-throw percentage (85.0%).  DJ McNeal is second on the team in scoring at 13.0ppg with juniors Dominic Sesma and Michael Demers each sitting at 12.5ppg.  That duo is also among the league's top three-point shooters with Demers sitting fourth at 2.4 makes per game and Sesma 10th at 1.9.  Defensively, the Beavers are holding opponents to a league-low 71.2ppg and have allowed just one team to reach 80 points in a game this season.  Teams are only shooting 28.8 percent from long distance while the Beavers hold a +9.6 advantage on the glass which is tied with Loras for tops in the A-R-C.

On Deck
After Thursday's non-conference outing, the Beavers will be off until after the holiday break when it returns to American Rivers Conference play by hosting Coe College on Thursday, January 2, 2020 at 7:30 p.m.  This game is a make-up contest with the Kohawks that was postponed back on November 26 due to weather.  That game will be the first of two straight home contests to begin the new year, as the team will then host Luther on January 4 at 4 p.m.