Six players scored in double figures Monday night to help the Buena Vista men's basketball team bounce back from its first loss of 2017 with a hard fought 80-75 home victory over Nebraska Wesleyan.
Senior Kennedy Drey, despite battling foul trouble the entire game, led BVU with 15 points and seven rebounds. David Jeffries made 7-of-9 of his field goal attempts for 14 points while the final three starters, Sean Morgan, Thomas Wisecup, Paul Gallagher each added 10. Timothy Jeffries came off the bench for the Beavers and also chipped in with 10. David Jeffries followed Drey with six boards and also chalked up four more steals. Wisecup dished out a game-high seven assists.
BVU shot 51 percent from the field, despite making just 5-of-17 from downtown. It also held a 42-34 edge on the glass.
The Beavers opened by scoring the game's first eight points, but that was the largest lead by either team in the contest. BVU maintained the lead the entire first half until a three-pointer with under 45 seconds left gave the Prairie Wolves their first lead of the night at 31-30. Gallagher, however, came back down and sank two free-throws to give BVU a 32-31 lead at the break.
After Gallagher opened the second with his only three of the night, Nebraska Wesleyan went on a 10-2 run to take a 41-37 lead. The Prairie Wolves led for most of the second half, including a 60-53 lead midway through.
NWU remained in front, 67-62 with under seven minutes to play, but a long range bucket from Wisecup and six straight from Drey gave BVU a 71-70 lead with 3:25 to play. Drey was then called with his fifth foul on the ensuing NWU possession and headed to the bench with just over 3:00 remaining.
The Prairie Wolves missed the front end of the one-and-one, and David Jeffries came back down and extended the Beaver lead to 73-70. After an NWU bucket made it a one-point game, Jeffries again came back down with a layup to again make it a three-point contest.
NWU then came up empty from long range on its next to trips down the floor, and BVU then stepped up to the charity stripe to sink 5-of-6 attempts inside the final 25 seconds to secure the victory.
Nate Schimonitz made 6-of-13 from downtown for the Prairie Wolves in a losing effort to lead all scorers with 36 points.
Buena Vista extends its lead over NWU to a pair of games with just five regular season games remaining. The Beavers (13-7, 9-2 IIAC) will be right back in action on Wednesday night as they look to complete the season sweep of Simpson College (13-7, 6-5 IIAC) when they face the Storm in Indianola at 8:00pm.