Beaver Basketball Teams to End Regular Season at Cornell

A lot will be at stake for both the Buena Vista men’s and women’s basketball teams when they each take the court on Saturday afternoon inside of the Richard and Norma Small Multi-Events Center, on the campus of Cornell College.

The Beaver women picked up a commanding 86-71 home victory on Wednesday night over Luther College, avenging an earlier season loss to the Norse and keeping the team’s Iowa Conference Tournament berth alive.  With the Rams’ 58-53 loss at the University of Dubuque on Wednesday, BVU and Cornell both enter Saturday’s showdown tied for sixth in the league standings at 6-9.  It will be a winner-take-all game with the winner earning the final spot in the postseason tournament, while the loser will see its season come to a close.

BVU, which has appeared in all 12 IIAC tournaments since the event began, topped the Rams 61-60 inside of Siebens Fieldhouse back on January 4.  Senior Jessica Christensen (Turin, Iowa/West Monona) and sophomore Susan Kies (Fonda, Iowa/Newell-Fonda) combined to go 7-of-12 from three-point range in that contest to lead the team with 14 and 13 points, respectively.  They will again look to keep that hot shooting alive after combining for eight of BVU’s season-high 13 long range buckets against the Norse on Wednesday.

On the men’s side, Buena Vista has already locked up its 14^th straight berth into the tournament, but is going after a win against the Rams to secure at least a top-two seed and earn a first round bye in next week’s tournament, which begins on Tuesday, February 21.  BVU, which has won eight of its last 10 games overall this season, handed Cornell (3-21, 1-14 IIAC) an 84-68 loss earlier this season.  In that game, senior Jeff Janssen (Fairmont, Minn./Fairmont) hit four three-pointers and finished with 17 points, while junior Wes Nordquist (Adel, Iowa/ADM) followed with 16 points and six rebounds.  The team enters the game with a chance at a share of the league title after rolling past Luther on Wednesday night, 67-49.  A win would also give the Beavers (14-10, 10-5 IIAC) 15 overall wins in a single season for the 15^th time in 16 seasons under Coach Van Haaften.

Saturday’s games will be streamed online by the Cornell College athletics department at: http://www.cornellrams.com/fw/Streaming/Basketball_Live_Streaming.php

A live radio broadcast of the games will also be available locally in Storm Lake on 97.5FM KBVU.  Tip-off for the women’s game is scheduled for 2:00pm with the men’s contest to follow at 4:00pm.

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