STORM LAKE, Iowa (Nov. 14, 2025) - The Buena Vista men's basketball trimmed a 16-point second half deficit down to two with 90 seconds to play, but the Beavers came up short in the season opener against the College of St. Scholastica, 73-66, to wrap up the first day of the Central Bank Classic.

BVU faced its largest deficit of the night at 63-47 at the 8:05 mark of the second half. Neither team would score for the next three minutes before sophomore Adam Bryte buried one of his career-high five three-point buckets to help spark a key 21-5 run over the next four minutes which was capped by another Bryte trey that made it 68-66 with 1:25 remaining.

The Saints then got a three-point make of their own as the shot clock was winding down that pushed the lead back up to five with 55 seconds to go. Bryte was off target on a three-point attempt the next trip down the floor, but the Beavers still had life with St. Scholastica missing the front-end of a pair of 1-and-1 free-throw opportunities. BVU, however, missed a layup and later turned the ball over and the Saints would made a pair of free-throws in the closing seconds to put the game out of reach.

BVU led 15-8 near the midway point of the first half but a 10-2 run by the Saints erased that cushion. The game was back-and-forth down the stretch of the opening half before St. Scholastica went into the locker room with a 32-26 advantage.

Bryte finished the game shooting 5-of-15 from downtown and 9-of-21 overall en route to a career-high 25 points. Junior Carter Sievers added 13 points, five rebounds and five assists, while fellow junior Kyle Sternberg chipped in with 11 points with six of those coming at the free-throw line.

The Beavers were held  to only 33.9 percent shooting overall despite going 10-of-33 from downtown. The team also struggled a bit at the free-throw line by making only 14-of-21.

Davion Butler turned in 18 points and had four steals to help lead the Saints (2-0) as Koy Nelson followed with 17 points and five boards. St. Scholastica shot 64 percent from the field in the second half and finished the game at 50 percent overall. After making just 1-of-12 from downtown in the first half, the Saints went 6-of-12 over the final 20 minutes, while going just 4-of-7 overall at the charity stripe.

Buena Vista is 0-1 on the year and will turn around and play Minnesota-Morris on Saturday, Nov. 15, at 4 p.m. in what will be the final game of the Classic. The Cougars fell to Nebraska Wesleyan in the opening game of the day on Friday by a score of 78-67.