SALEM, Va. (December 30, 2021) - The Buena Vista University men's basketball team made 11-of-32 long range buckets against Covenant College on Thursday afternoon, outscoring the Comets by 21 from long range, and the Beavers were able to hold off  second-half rally for the 72-65 victory in its first game of the Cregger Invitational,hosted by No. 10 Roanoke College.

Senior Michael Demers was a team-best 4-of-9 from downtown and finished with 18 points, four assists and five steals.  Sophomore Michael Santich was 3-of-4 from beyond the arc and added 15 points and five assists while fellow sophomore Zane Neubaum also added 15 points to go along with five boards.  Simon Danilel also scored in double figures with 11.

The Beavers were 9-of-20 from distance in the opening half and built a 17-point cushion at the half (49-32).  The Comets, however, held BVU to only two makes from long range and just 6-of-25 overall from the field over the final 20 minutes and slowly chipped away at the lead.  BVU held a 52-32 advantage just minutes into the second half before Covenant went on a 13-3 run over the next 10 minutes to get within 55-45 midway through the half.  

Myles Jones made one of the four Comet three-point buckets in the game with seven minutes to go which pulled Covenant to within single digits for the first time since it was 11-2.  They got as close as 64-60 with just over two minutes to play before the Beavers buckled down and got a layup from Santich and a long range trey from Demers to push the margin back to nine at 69-60.  The Comets got a bucket to get back within seven but Neubaum made three big free-throws down the stretch to make it a 10-point cushion and secure the win.

BVU finished the game shooting 43.3 percent overall and went 9-of-12 at the charity stripe.  The Comets (6-4) were 43.5 percent shooting overall but held to just 4-of-24 from downtown.

Buena Vista has now won three straight games overall and improves to 5-7 on the year.  The Beavers will look to make it four straight when it takes on No. 10 Roanoke on Friday at 11:00 a.m. CST.