STORM LAKE, Iowa (February 8, 2020) - The Buena Vista men's basketball team used a 24-3 run over the final seven-plus minutes of the first half to break open a 41-17 halftime lead and never looked back as the Beavers snapped their three-game losing skid with  an 81-70 home victory on Saturday as part of Alumni Day.

Junior Michael Demers continues his torrid stretch by scoring a team-high 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting, to go along with five rebounds, three assist and three steals.  He came into the game averaging over 17.0ppg over the last four contests.  Senior Timothy Jeffries finished 6-of-10 at the free-throw line and followed with 18 points and seven boards, while junior Brendan Gary came off the bench and scored 15 points and hauled in a career-high 12 rebounds for his second career double-double.  He made a career-high nine free-throws on 15 attempts.  As a team. BVU made it to the free-throw line a season-high 40 times.

BVU led 17-14 with 7:21 left in the opening half before a layup from Noah Schmitt began a string of 24 straight points by the Beavers.  Jeffries hit one of his two long range buckets before Gary followed with a bucket and a free-throw.  The Spartans went nearly seven minutes without scoring before tallying the final three points of the half.

The Spartans weren't about to go away, however, slowly chipping away at that BVU lead and wound up getting as close as nine at 71-62 with 3:39 still to play.  The Beavers quickly pushed it back into double figures and never let it slip below that cushion the rest of the way.

Defensively, the Beavers out-rebounded the Spartans, 40-30, in the contest, and held the Spartans (14-8, 6-6 A-R-C) to 25 percent shooting in the first half.

Buena Vista improves to 16-5 on the year (7-5 A-R-C) and completed the season sweep of Dubuque.  It will now look to go after the sweep of Wartburg on Wednesday night with a 7:30 p.m. tip-off inside Levick Arena.