DECORAH, Iowa (February 1, 2020) - Senior Destiny Einerwold scored a team-high 24 points, junior Erin Gerke added 13, but it was Luther College pulling away in the fourth quarter to hold off Buena Vista, 80-65, on Saturday afternoon inside of the Regents Center.

BVU stayed right with the Norse (9-2, 11-7) all afternoon, in what was a back-and-forth game until the final period.  Luther led briefly by 11 in the second quarter but the Beavers trailed by just eight points (42-34) at the break.  The Beavers then kept things inside double-digits for most of the third quarter until the Norse pushed their cushion over 10 with just over one minute left and led 61-50 heading to the fourth.  Luther scored the first six points of the fourth and led by 17, but BVU would cut the deficit back down to nine midway through.  A 7-0 spurt by the Norse over the next three minutes made it a 16-point lead to help keep them in a three-way tie atop the American Rivers Conference standings.

Despite the loss, the Beavers had one of their most efficient shooting days of the season.  Einerwold was 8-of-20 overall and added six more free-throws en route to her fifth 20-point contest of the year.  As a team, BVU was 41 percent from the field, including 7-of-15 from downtown.  

The Norse did most of their damage around the basket, scoring 44 of their 80 points inside the paint.  The team shot 50 percent from the field overall despite making only 2-of-15 attempts from long distance.  Sarah Holtz and Madi Spence each scored 18 points to lead they way with Holtz completing her double-double with 11 boards.  Laura Hamilton dished out 10 assists to go along with eight points and six rebounds,.

Buena Vista is now 1-18 overall (0-10 A-R-C) and will host 14th-ranked Loras on Feb. 5 at 5:30 p.m.