ST. BONAFACIUS, Minn. (Nov. 17, 2023) - The Buena Vista women's basketball team played its first road contest of the year on Friday evening at Crown College, and had three players finish in double figures, including 26 points from junior McKenna Cone, en route to an 82-64 victory over the Polars.

Cone was 10-of-20 shooting and made 2-of-4 from long range and 4-of-5 at the charity stripe. She fell one point of matching her career-high of 27 points set last season at Central College. Sophomore Maddie Hilgendorf set a career-high of 16 points and matched her best with eight rebounds. It was only her second double-digit output of her career and first since 10 points against Colorado College on Nov. 26 of last season. Sophomore Danika Demers chipped in with 14 points, eight rebounds and a team-leading four assists and two steals.

After missing on seven of their first nine shot attempts to begin the game, the Beavers would make six of the next 10 to grab a 20-18 lead after the first quarter. The hot streak continued into the second quarter where the team made a game-high 10 field goals and shot over 52 percent from the field while extending the advantage to 44-39.

BVU held the Polars to only 10 third quarter points and only 15 percent shooting as it began pulling away at 63-49 heading to the final period. The Beavers made eight field goals in the final stanza and shot better than 44 percent en route to their highest single-game scoring output since 2018-19 when they reached 95 against the University of Dubuque in the second-to-last game of the season.

Serapio Hazel led the Polars (0-3) with 18 points.

Buena Vista improves to 1-1 on the season and hosts Grinnell College on Nov. 21 at 6 p.m. inside of Siebens Fieldhouse.