Men's Basketball | 2/3/2021 7:37:00 PM

Box Score STORM LAKE, Iowa (February 3, 2021) - The Buena Vista men's basketball team built a 22-point second half lead and held off a late Nebraska Wesleyan charge to bounce back from its first loss of the season by picking up a 76-64 victory over the Prairie Wolves inside Siebens Fieldhouse on Wednesday night.

BVU built an early 19-9 lead midway through the opening half and used six made three-point baskets and strong defensive effort to lead 45-28 at the break.  The Beavers held Nebraska Wesleyan to only 40 percent shooting in the half, including 2-of-16 from downtown.  The game was the season-opener for the Prairie Wolves.

Buena Vista was able to build their largest lead of the night at 57-35 with 14:30 to play.  It was still a 20-point margin midway through before NWU tried to claw back.  The lead was trimmed down to 14 with still 6:30 to play, but BVU held strong with a layup and two free-throws from junior Trey Valentine pushed the cushion back to 18.  The four-time defending conference champs continued to battle until the final whistle but was too-little-too-late in the end.

Freshman Zane Neubaum helped lead the charge with a career-high four made three-point buckets and a team-high 18 points.  He also grabbed a career-best 10 rebounds for his first career double-double.  Senior Joe Lind came off the bench and chipped in with 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting while fellow senior Michael Demers added 10 points, four rebounds and four assists.  Senior Garret Sittner matches his career-high with five assists while freshman Micahel Santich also dished out five.

For the game, the Beavers (3-1, 3-1 A-R-C) shot 44.8 percent from the field and made 10-of-30 from long range.  The team was also able to overcome a season-high 18 turnovers.

BVU is now slated to go back on the road this Saturday (Feb. 6) for a conference game at Luther College (0-0, 0-0 A-R-C) at 2:00 p.m.