ROCK ISLAND, Ill. (Nov. 7, 2026) - Junior
Tyson Helms scored a game-high 30 points, while fellow juniors
Jayden Brink and
Adam Bryte added 17 and 10, respectively, but the Buena Vista men's basketball team would come up short on the road, 91-81, during its season opener at Augustana College on Saturday evening.
Helms, making his BVU debut, finished 10-of-15 shooting, including 3-of-7 from downtown and also converted 7-of-9 at the charity stripe. Brink was an efficient 6-of-7 from the field and also made a pair of long range buckets. Senior
Carter Sievers just missed out on double figures with nine points while seniorÂ
Kyle Sternberg was held to four points but grabbed a team-high five rebounds.
BVU shot 45.6 percent from the field overall and made 7-of-20 from beyond the arc (35.0%). It made 17-of-19 from the free-throw line in the second half alone after going 5-of-11 in the first half.
The Vikings led wire-to-wire, but BVU never let the lead grow more than nine in the first half and scored the final five points to close the gap to 43-39 at the half. Augustana came out of the locker room and scored the first eight points of the second half to build a double-digit lead. The Beavers fought back within seven after a pair of free-throws from Sievers only to see the Vikings respond with a 12-0 surge to give them a 71-52 cushion with under 9:00 left.
The Beavers clawed their way back to within nine after a three-point play from Bryte with just over one minute remaining and got as close as eight with 38 ticks to go, but the rally was too-little-too late.
Staishaun Kelley scored 27 points to lead three players in double figures for Augustana (1-0).
Buena Vista (0-1) is right back on the court Sunday afternoon for a road game at UW-Platteville starting at 4 p.m.
