STORM LAKE, Iowa (Jan. 15, 2025) - The Buena Vista University women's basketball team used a big second quarter and built a 32-28 halftime lead, but visiting Simpson College finished the game off with 32 fourth quarter points en route to a 77-55 American Rivers Conference victory on Wednesday night inside of Siebens Fieldhouse.

The Storm led 22-14 after the first quarter before BVU caught fire from downtown in the second. The Beavers made 5-of-8 attempts from long range in the period and held the Storm to 0-of-6, to help spark the comeback which gave them a four-point halftime cushion.

BVU made a free-throw followed by a Krager layup to begin the third quarter gave the Beavers their largest lead at 35-28, but then cooled off from there, going 0-of-9 from distance and just 3-of-16 from the field. Simpson, meanwhile, heated up by converting 6-of-15 attempts from the floor to outscore the Beavers 17-8 in the period and take a 45-40 lead to the fourth. 

After making 8-of-17 from beyond the arc over the first 20 minutes, the Beavers couldn't get many to fall in the second, going just 2-of-16. Simpson, which came into the game leading DIII in three-point field goal percentage at 40.4 percent and sitting sixth in makes at 13-0, made just two of its first 11 treys and finished at 25 percent (5-of-20). 

The Storm scored the final two points of the third and the first eight of the fourth to balloon their lead up to 13. BVU scored just seven points over the first seven minutes of the quarter and trailed by as many as 24.

Simpson made up for the cold shooting night from downtown by outscoring the Beavers 44-10 in the paint. The Storm made 12 more field goals than BVU overall and made 14-of-18 from the free-throw line. BVU held a slight 14-9 edge in second chance points and forced two more turnovers.

Freshman Tyme Boettcher led BVU with 13 points on 4-of-13 shooting from long range and also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. Senior McKenna Cone and freshman Bradi Krager followed with 11 points apiece. Cone was 3-of-9 from behind the arc with Krager going 4-of-6 at the charity stripe and also dishing out three assists and tallying a team-leading three steals. Junior Danika Demers also dished out three dimes and had six boards.

Ella Anderson led the Storm (8-8, 4-3 A-R-C) with a game-high 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting. Haley Rasmussen followed with 14 points.

Buena Vista sits at 5-10 on the season (0-6 A-R-C) and travels to No. 11 Wartburg College on Saturday, Jan. 18, for a 2 p.m. tip-off against the Knights.