STORM LAKE, Iowa (Marc 1, 2021) - The Buena Vista men's basketball held a two-point lead at the half against No. 8 Dubuque on Monday night, but the Beavers couldn't overcome a tough second-half shooting performance as they would fall to the Spartans inside SIebens Fieldhouse, 76-67.

In a game that was back-and-forth throughout the first half with neither team leading by more than five, BVU looked poised to go into the locker room leading by that very margin, but Dubuque hit a three-point shot off an inbounds play as the buzzer sounded to make it  a 39-37 game at the break.

BVU, which came in averaging nearly 11 made three-point buckets per game on the year, had five treys in the opening half but then went 0-14 from beyond the arc over the final 20 minutes.  Dubuque, on the other hand, connected on just 3-of-10 three-point attempts in the opening frame before nailing 6-of-10 down the stretch.

After Jake Thompson scored two of his career-high 28 points with 13:24 remaining to get the Beavers within 53-49, the team would then go the next seven minutes without a field goal.  The only points scored by the team during that stretch were a pair of free-throws from Thompson.  Dubuque built the game's first double-digit margin at 61-51 with 8:03 to play.

The Spartans later pushed the advantage up to 12 with just over four minutes to play before BVU made a late charge to get within five at 68-63 following a layup from Brendan Gary with 2:07 remaining but that was as close as it would get from there.  Dubuque answered with a three-pointer to quickly make it an eight-point lead and then made 5-of-6 attempts from the free-throw line inside the final minute to secure the win.

Thompson finished the game with a career-best 10 made field goals (10-of-19) and led all scorers with his 28 points.  Senior Michael Demers followed wth 17 points, but scored just four in the second half as he battled foul trouble. The Beavers finished the game shooting 41.7 percent overall from the field while Dubuque was 50.9 percent, including 9-of-20 from long distance (45.0 percent).

Sam Kilburg led the Spartans (11-0, 7-0 A-R-C) with 21 points, including a team-leading three long range buckets.

Buena Vista sees its season-long four-game win streak come to an end as it dips to 6-2 overall (5-2 A-R-C).  The Beavers are scheduled to play a non-conference game at Simpson College on Wednesday night at 5:30 p.m. before wrapping up the regular season on Saturday afternoon at Central College.  Tip-off against the Dutch is set for 2:00 p.m.