STORM LAKE, Iowa (Dec. 30, 2025) - The Buena Vista men's basketball team led by eight with under five minutes to go, but back-to-back long range buckets helped spark a late surge by visiting Carleton College as the Knights rallied and held off the Beavers on Tuesday evening 76-74 inside of Siebens Fieldhouse.

Senior Jackson Jones made a layup with 4:45 to go that gave BVU its largest lead of the game a 72-64. Neither team scored for the next 90 seconds before the Knights made a free-throw to end the drought. After Jackson's basket, the Beavers missed six straight shot attempts while the Knights made consecutive three-point baskets from Drake Matt to pull within one at 72-71 with 1:39 remaining.

After a BVU turnover, the Knights came down and got a jumper to roll in with 51 seconds left that gave them their first lead since the 12:34 mark of the half. Junior Kyle Sternberg gave the Beavers the lead right back on the next trip down the floor by sinking a pair of free-throws, but Carleton came right back down seconds later with a made layup to put the Knights back in front 75-74 with 23 seconds to go. BVU then missed a free-throw line jumper coming out of a timeout and then was forced to foul after Carleton grabbed the defensive rebound with just under seven seconds on the clock.

The Knights went 1-for-2 at the line giving BVU a chance to win or force overtime. The Beavers drove the ball down court with junior Carter Sievers driving the lane and then dishing out to sophomore Adam Bryte in the corner but the shot at the buzzer was just off target as BVU's three-game overall win streak came to an end.

Carleton had led 50-48 at the 12:34 mark of the second half before junior Carter Sievers made the first of four straight three-point shots for the Beavers. He also had four made free-throws sandwiched in throughout, but those 16 straight points gave BVU a 64-62 advantage. Sternberg then made a layup followed by a Sievers jumper and BVU led by six. After the Knights had cut the deficit back down to four, Jackson Jones followed with a pair of free-throws and his layup that led to the team's largest lead.

Sievers finished the game making a career-high five three-point buckets and finishing with a season-high 27 points. He was 5-of-8 from downtown and made all six free-throws. All of that after sitting out a good chunk of the first half after picking up two early fouls. Sternberg was 7-of-11 from the field and 2-of-4 from downtown en route to 18 points. He also grabbed six rebounds, two steals and one block. Jones was 4-of-9 shooting despite going only 1-of-6 from beyond the arc but did make all four at the charity stripe to finish with 13 points.

Bryte was held to only eight points but grabbed a team-leading seven rebounds and tied sophomore Jayden Brink with three assists.

As a team, the Beavers made 25 field goals and shot 43 percent overall while making 11-of-35 from long range (31.4 percent). It's the fourth straight game of making at least 10 from downtown. The team has also been strong at the free-throw line during that same stretch and made 13-of-15 against the Knights.

Carleton had a big second half shooting performance at 55 percent, including 6-of-13 from long distance. The Knights were 48 percent over the first 20 minutes and went 5-of-12 from behind the arc. They were held to only 11 free-throw attempts in the game and made seven. Drake was a sizzling 6-of-7 from three-point range and led Carleton (7-5) in scoring at 22 points. 

Buena Vista (8-4) is back into American Rivers Conference play on Saturday, Jan. 3 at the University of Dubuque (8-3, 1-1 A-R-C) with tip-off at 4 p.m.