STORM LAKE, Iowa - Junior Vanessa Hamlett finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds while Lindsey Anhalt added 13 points and six boards to help lead the Buena Vista women's basketball team to a big 60-55 home victory over Luther College on Saturday afternoon.

The Beavers trailed 27-23 at the break but came out of the locker room and outscored the Norse 18-9 in third quarter to take control and never looked back.  Luther scored the first points of the half to make it a 29-23 game, but Hamlett scored four straight points to cut the deficit down to two.  Anhalt came through moments later with the play of the game when she nailed a three-pointer in front of the BVU bench while also getting fouled.  She calmly sank the free-throw and that tied things at 31-31 with 7:14 left in the quarter.  

Later in the frame, Mallory McCall put in back-to-back layups to give BVU a three-point cushion before the Beavers added two free-throws down the stretch of the quarter to take a 41-36 lead into the fourth.

BVU quickly scored four straight points to begin the final period and extend its lead to nine at 45-36.  The Norse would not go away, clawing back to as close as five before the Beavers again pushed it back to nine at 56-47 with only 2:49 remaining.  Luther again made a final push and pulled to within 56-53 with just 13 seconds left.  The Norse forced the Beavers to hit their free-throws in the closing seconds and Hamlett and Taylor Krager did just that by going 4-of-4 down the stretch despite the team converting just 18-of-28 for the game.

Hamlett's double-double marks her fifth of the year and her first in the last seven games.  Krager had a strong game with eight points and a career-high six assists while McCall chipped in with eight points and nine rebounds.

Buena Vista shot 35 percent from the field overall while making 4-of-11 attempts from downtown (36.4 percent).  Over the last two contests, the team is 8-of-21 from beyond the arc.

Megan Miller led the Norse (7-10, 4-4 A-R-C) with 14 points as Kristen Elliott and Jordan Rubie followed with 11 and 10 points, respectively.  The Beavers held Luther to just 1-of-11 shooting from three-point land and the Norse were just 10-of-17 from the charity stripe.

Buena Vista improves to 6-10 overall (4-6 A-R-C) and will complete the homestand while looking for its third straight win overall when it hosts Central College (3-9, 1-5 A-R-C) on Monday night (Jan. 31) at 7:00 p.m.