STORM LAKE, Iowa (March 11, 2021) - The Buena Vista men's basketball team had a 19-point second half lead cut down to five by Central College with 2:00 to play, but the Beavers survived the Dutch down the stretch and picked up an 81-76 victory inside of Siebens Fieldhouse. The win sends the team into its 10th conference tournament title game all-time.
The game was back-and-forth for the majority of the first half with BVU taking its largest lead of the period into the break at 41-32. BVU, which led wire-to-wire in the game, started strong in the second stanza and extended its lead to 14 with only three minutes gone by. The Beavers would maintain that cushion and eventually build their largest advantage at 65-46 midway through after a made three-point bucket by freshman
Zane Neubaum, who finished with a career-high 27 points.
Central would not go away and would slowly chip away at the BVU lead as the Beavers made just one field goal over the next seven minutes. The Dutch got within single digits with just over four minutes left to play and pulled with 71-66 with 2:00 remaining. The Beavers struggled from the charity stripe down the stretch with a chance to put the game away, allowing the Dutch to hang around. A pair of
Michael Demers free-throws with six seconds left gave BVU an 81-74 lead before the Dutch got a layup to go in the final second.
Neubaum finished the game shooting 10-of-17 overall and was the only Beaver with multiple three-point treys (2-for-5). Demers finished right behind with 23 points, including a career-high eight made free-throws. Senior
Jake Thompson chipped in with 10 points and matched a career-best with six assists.
After making a season-high 15 long range shots during its quarterfinal victory on Tuesday, the Beavers struggled from distance against the Dutch, converting only 6-of-23 attempts. The team was 54 percent from the field overall in the first half but dipped to 43 percent over the final 20 minutes.
Adam Flinn turned in 25 points to lead the way for Central while Sam Beatty followed with 18.
Buena Vista moves into its first conference title game since 2012 and will travel to top-seed Dubuque on Saturday afternoon to take on the Spartans while going after its eighth tournament title all-time. Tip-off inside the Stoltz Sports Center is scheduled for 4:00 p.m.
