DUBUQUE, Iowa (Jan. 6, 2024)  - Four players scored in double figures for Buena Vista, led by senior Gunner Reed's game-high 23 points, but it wasn't quite enough for the Beavers as they fell on to road, 85-74, to No. 24 Dubuque on Saturday afternoon.

Reed, who's among the league leaders in field goal percentage at better than 63 percent on the year, finished 8-of-12, while also going 6-of-9 at the free-throw line. He grabbed seven rebounds and also added a pair of steals. Freshman Koleson Evans turned in a career-high 15 points and registered his first career double-double by adding 11 rebounds off the bench. He was 5-of-8 from the field and 5-of-6 at the line. Fellow freshman Carter Sievers chipped in with 14 points as senior Zane Neubaum added 12 points and six boards.

BVU, despite a 3-of-14 performance from long range, still managed to shoot 49 percent overall for the game and made 17-of-22 attempts from the stripe. The Spartans, however, shot a touch better and outscored BVU by 21 from downtown by making 10-of-23. They made 51 percent from the field overall and 23-of-28 free-throw shots.

The first half was back-and-forth from the opening tip. The Spartans used an 11-4 run early on to build the largest lead of the half at 16-9. They maintained that cushion throughout until BVU tied things at 32-32 after a layup from Sievers with 2:43 remaining. Dubuque would close the half by scoring nine of the final 12 points to hold a 41-36 halftime lead.

Dubuque pushed the margin back to seven to begin the second half and remained in front until three free-throws from Neubaum with nearly seven minutes gone by tied things up at 49-49. Sievers later gave BVU its first lead at 55-54 midway through the half but the Spartans quickly responded with a dunk that helped spark a key 14-4 run that gave Dubuque the game's first double-digit lead at 68-58 with 6:55 to go. From there, BVU was unable to get any closer than seven points down the stretch.

Jaylin McCants and Brock Simon each scored 23 points to lead Dubuque (13-0, 5-0 A-R-C) and combined to go 5-of-7 from downtown.

Buena Vista dips to 8-6 on the year (1-4 A-R-C) and travels to Simpson College on Jan. 10 for a 7:30 tip-off with the Storm.