STORM LAKE, Iowa (December 4, 2021) - The Buena Vista men's basketball team led by 16 points with just under 17:00 left in the second half, only to see visiting Loras College slowly chip away at that margin before eventually leaving Siebens Fieldhouse with a 73-68 American Rivers Conference victory on Saturday evening.

BVU led 36-25 at the half before Daniel Simon drilled a three-point shot to give BVU the largest lead of the contest (47-31).  The two teams then went scoreless over the next three minutes before a pair of free-throws and back-to-back fastbreak layups from the Duhawks forced a Beaver timeout as their lead dwindled down to 47-37.  Loras added three-pointer to make it 47-40 before a bucket from senior Jake Thompson ended the BVU scoring drought which lasted over four minutes.

Simon bumped the cushion back to double-digits at 51-40 with 12:12 to play before the Duhawks capitalized on four made free-throws and another fastbreak layup to make it a 51-46 contest with over 10:00 still to play.

Loras was then hit with a technical foul on the next trip down the floor after being called for a foul, and BVU senior Michael Demers calmly made all four free-throw attempts to quickly push the margin back up to nine at 55-46,

The Beavers were able to maintain the advantage and continued to hold a seven-point lead at 63-56 with under 5:00 to play.  BVU, however, was docked a technical foul as the two teams headed into a timeout, and things began to swing in favor of Loras from that point.

The Duhawks came out of the timeout and made both free-throw attempts which began a 13-4 run and gave Loras its first lead (69-67) with only 45 seconds left.  It was the first time the Duhawks were in front since building a 15-12 lead with 12:14 left in the opening half.

Demers was back at the free-throw line for a pair of shots on the next trip down the floor, but missed the second of the attempts to keep Loras in front 69-68 with under 30 seconds left.  BVU was then forced to foul and Loras, which made 26-of-30 free-throw attempts in the contest, made all four trips in the closing seconds to secure the win.

Demers led all scorers in the game with 20 points on 5-of-9 shooting.  He also grabbed eight rebounds, dished out five assists and chalked up three steals.  Zane Neubaum also reached double figures with 10 points, including a pair of three-point buckets as Simon chipped in with nine points despite 4-of-15 shooting.  Buena Vista was held to 37.5 percent shooting overall and 6-of-28 from long distance.  The Beavers, however, were hindered by an 11-of-25 effort at the free-throw line.

Cole Navigato led Loras with 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting and 6-of-7 at the free-throw line.  Ali Sabet was a perfect 10-of-10 at the charity stripe and followed with 14 points.

Buena Vista drops to 2-7 overall (0-2 A-R-C) and will travel to Nebraska Wesleyan on December 8 for a 7:30 p.m. tip-off.