CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (February 15, 2020) - Coe College broke open a five-point game with a 13-0 run to begin the second half, and the Buena Vista men's basketball team was unable to get any closer than seven the rest of the way, as the Beavers suffered a tough 81-72 road loss to the Kohawks (14-9, 9-5 A-R-C) on Saturday afternoon.

BVU trailed 21-13 midway through the first half before chipping away at the Coe lead and getting back-to-back buckets from Michael Demers and Timothy Jeffries to build its largest lead of the day at 29-26 with under three minutes left.  Coe tied it at 29 with a long range shot before Demers gave the Beavers then lead right back at 32-31 with a long distance bucket of his own.  The Kohawks pushed the margin to four late before Demers put in a layup with 14 seconds left to make it 38-36.  Adam McDermott scored 19 points in the opening half for the home team, including a tightly contested three in the corner as the buzzer sounded to give Coe a 41-36 cushion going into the locker room.

The Beavers got the ball to begin the second half but had a pass stolen in the opening seconds that led to a fastbreak layup and the start of 13 straight points for the Kohawks in the first two minutes of the half.  BVU trailed by as much as 20 (61-41) with 14:26 left in regulation before again chipping away.  Junior Lincoln Rock connected on his only three-pointer of the game which sparked an 11-0 surge by the Beavers to get them within 61-52 after a pair of free-throws from Dominic Sesma with 10 minutes yet to play.

A layup by DJ McNeal four minutes later got the Beavers as close as 68-61 but with chances to inch even closer, the team turned it over on two of its next three possessions.  Coe then got a fast break layup and a foul to push it back to a 10-point lead with 4:20 left.  The Kohawks pushed the advantage back up to 18 before both sides went to the bench.  Garrett Sittner knocked down a three before Joe Lind drilled a pair of his own inside the final minute to cut it down to single digits at the end.

Four of the five starters scored in double figures for the Beavers, led by Jeffries at 17 points.  Demers followed with 13 points, a team-high seven rebounds, and also dishing out four assists.  Sesma and Rock each chimed in with 11 points. Demers connected on 2-of-6 from downtown and moves past Troy Ticknor into 10th-place on the program's single season list with 64 makes on the year.  He's now just one back of ninth and three shy of eighth.

BVU made 8-of-23 from behind the arc and was a solid 49 percent from the field overall.  Coe made just one more field goal than the Beavers overall but connected on three more from downtown.

Buena Vista dips to 17-6 overall (8-6 A-R-C) and will look to bounce back when it hosts Central College (5-19, 2-13 A-R-C) on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m.