PELLA, Iowa (February 16, 2022) - The Buena Vista men's basketball team trailed by five at halftime and by as many as 10 in the second before rallying late and picking up a thrilling 73-69 victory over Central College which secured the team of a No. 2 seed into next week's American Rivers Conference victory.

Michael Demers scored a game-high 21 points while Zane Neubaum added 20 to help lead the team.  Demers nailed 4-of-5 from downtown and 8-of-11 overall from the field.  He made the go-ahead basket on a wide-open layup with 45 seconds left before sinking a free-throw with three seconds left for the game's final score.  Neubaum made to key free-throws following a defensive stop by BVU that extended the margin to three at 72-69.  He finished the game making 7-of-8 from the line and was 6-of-13 from the field overall while also dishing out a team-high five assists.

Garrett Sittner came off the bench and hit three big long range buckets and totaled 13 points to go along with eight rebounds.  

The Beavers made 8-of-19 shots from long range in the opening half before going just 1-of-4 in the second.  The team was able to work the ball inside over the final 20 minutes and shot nearly 54 percent from the field in the half.  It also made 10-of-16 attempts at the free-throw line.

Kade Terrell scored 15 points for the Dutch which drop to 6-17 (3-12 A-R-C) on the year.

Buena Vista improves to 14-11 overall (11-5 A-R-C).  It's the program's highest conference win total since it won 11 games back in 2014-15 and won the regular season title.  The team is off on Saturday and will now await its opponent for next week's A-R-C Conference Tournament which begins with the opening round on Tuesday, February 22.