Men's Basketball Tops Loras 67-55

Senior Doug Bissen (Earling, Iowa/Harlan) turned in his third double-double of the season, scoring 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, to help lead the Buena Vista men’s basketball team to a 67-55 home victory over visiting Loras College on Monday night.

Bissen, who surpassed 500 career rebounds last week against Simpson College, is now only 141 points shy of 1,000 career points after going 7-of-9 from the field and 7-of-10 at the free-throw line.  Michael Kaufmann (Harlan, Iowa/Harlan) and Cole Darrow (Glenwood, Iowa/Glenwood) each turned in 11 points and went a combined 9-of-12 at the free-throw line.

For the game, BVU shot 44 percent from the field, despite making only 2-of-14 attempts from long range.  It also made it to the charity stripe 32 times and made 21.

Loras, which shot 50 percent from the field in the first half, built a 32-20 lead with just over five minutes to go in the frame.  BVU then closed the half strong, going on 12-2 spurt, including two baskets each from Darrow and Kaufmann, to get within 34-32 nearing the one minute mark.  Loras then pushed the lead back to four and took a 36-33 halftime lead.

Neither team could string together much of a run in the second half, combining for only 12 made field goals and each shooting under 30 percent.  Loras, which 1-of-13 from long range in the second half, made its only triple three minutes into the half before going the next 12 minutes without a field goal. 

BVU, meanwhile, made seven shots at the free-throw line during that stretch and built a seven-point advantage at 46-39.  The Duhawks hung around, trailing by only four with under eight minutes to play before the Beavers closed the game on a 16-8 run with Bissen scoring 10 of those points.

The 55 points were the fewest allowed by the Beavers, defensively, this season.

The win is the seventh in the last 10 games for the Beavers and evens their overall record at 8-8 overall.  The team, which is back above .500 in the Iowa Conference at 4-3 will travel to the University of Dubuque (11-4, 6-1 IIAC) for an 8:00pm tip-off.  The Spartans suffered their first IIAC loss on Monday night, falling at Luther College, 66-44.

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