STORM LAKE, Iowa (February 12, 2022) - The Buena Vista men's basketball team overcame an early double-digit deficit against visiting Wartburg on Saturday afternoon and came away with a thrilling 94-92 triump over the Knights while moving into a three-way tie for second in the American Rivers Conference standings with only one regular season game remaining.

Sophomore Zane Neubaum scored a game-high 24 points on 6-of-10 shooting to go along with four steals.  Senior Michael Demers nailed a game-high four three-point buckets and tallied 18 points, nine rebounds and five assists.  Fellow senior Jake Thompson, along with freshman Gunner Reed added 14 points each with Thompson dishing out a game-leading six assists and chipping in with three steals.

As a team, Buena Vista buried 13 three-point buckets (13-of-36) and has now made 25-of-66 from beyond the arc over its last two games (both at home).

Wartburg built an early 30-17 lead with 10:44 left in the first half and that's when the tides began to turn.  Neubaum was fouled on a three-point attempt and would calmly sink all three free-throw attempts to make it a 10-point contest.  Garrett Sittner then made one of the team's eight three-point treys in the opening half which got BVU back within single digits before Thompson nailed a three-pointer with 2:11 left in the half to give the Beavers the lead back at 42-40 and they would carry a 47-44 advantage into the half.

It was a back-and-forth contest over the final 20 minutes.  Neubaum hit an early three-pointer that gave the Beavers a four-point lead but the Knights came right back and pulled even at 50-50.  Neither team lead by more than three after that until Wartburg went up by four at 72-68 with under nine minutes to play.  The margin increased to six at 80-74 just minutes later.  Back-to-back three-pointers by Neubaum and Demers put BVU back in front at 82-80 with 3:21 remaining and the Beavers would never trail the rest of the way.

Wartburg did pull even at 82-82 and again at 83-83 but BVU quickly rolled off four straight points to go up by four before a pair of free-throws from Neubaum gave BVU its largest lead of the afternoon at 89-83 with just 54 seconds left.  The Knights came back down and would connect on a three-pointer to make it a three-point game, and after a BVU turnover on the inbounds, Wartburg was able to cut it to 89-88.  It then became a free-throw fest and both teams traded made buckets from the charity stripe down the stretch.

BVU finished the game making 19-of-22 from the line while Wartburg made 10-of-16.

Keagan John turned in 22 points to lead Wartburg (16-7, 9-5 A-R-C).

Buena Vista improves to 13-11 overall (10-5 A-R-C) and completes the season sweep of the Knights.  The team moves into a three-way tie for second with both Wartburg and Coe.  The Knights and Kohawks face-off on Wednesday night in Cedar Rapids while BVU will travel to Pella, Iowa, and tip-off with Central College at 7:30 p.m.