Four of Buena Vista's five starters finished in double-figures on Saturday night, and the team used a strong night at the free-throw line to help lock up a solid 82-69 non-conference home victory over NAIA #8 Northwestern College (9-3).
BVU matched a season-high with 27 made free-throws in the contest, as it was in the double-bonus for the final nine minutes of the contest. It finished the second half converting 22-of-28 attempts.
Senior Doug Bissen (Eearling, Iowa/Harlan) posted his second double-double of the season, scoring 17 points and grabbing a season-best 11 rebounds. He came in leading the league in field goal percentage, and he kept that hot touch going, making 6-of-10 from the field, to go along with a 5-of-7 effort at the charity stripe. Sophomore Michael Kaufmann (Harlan, Iowa/Harlan) drilled three long range buckets and turned in 15 points, while senior Andy Puhrmann (Paullina, Iowa/South O'Brien) and junior Wes Nordquist (Adel, Iowa/ADM) each followed with 10 points.
Junior Kyle Hooks (North Sioux City, S.D./Dakota Valley) came off the bench and chimed in with six rebounds for BVU, as the Beavers held the Red Raiders, last year's Great Plains Athletic Conference champions, who came in averaging better than 83 points per contest, to less than 70 points for only the second time this season.
A three from Kaufmann gave the Beavers the early 13-7 lead before Northwestern came back to take its only lead of the game at 19-18 with nine minutes left in the first half. Another long range bucket from Kaufmann on the ensuing possession put BVU right back up two, and the team didn't relinquish the lead from there. It pushed the margin to nine with just more than four minutes left in the half en route to a 42-37 lead at the break.
A pair of free-throws by Nordquist gave the Beavers their first double-digit lead (49-39) less than a minute into the second half. Northwestern did claw its way back to tie the game at 59-59 with 10 minutes to play before Puhrmann nailed a three to spark a quick 6-0 run for the Beavers.
Just minutes prior to that, the Red Raiders saw their leading scorer, Stu Goslinga (16.5ppg), foul out after her received a personal foul and a technical foul. He finished the game with just 10 points.
Freshman Cole Darrow (Glenwood, Iowa/Glenwood) sank a pair of free-throws with just under six minutes to play, pushing the Beaver lead back into double-digits (72-62) and they led by at least that margin the rest of the way, including its largest lead of the night (15) with just more than two minutes left.
The win is the third straight overall for BVU this season (all at home), while the team improved its all-time record under Coach Van Haaften inside of Siebens Fieldhouse to an astonishing 165-30.
Buena Vista is now 4-5 overall and will be off this next week for finals. It will next take the court in the state of Texas when it takes part in the Trinity Invitational from December 20-21. The team opens with Whitman College on the 20th before wrapping up play against George Fox University on the 21.