Senior Susan Kies turned in a game-high 22 points, while fellow senior Malarie Gilley added 13 points and a career-high 24 rebounds, and the Buena Vista women's basketball team held off a scrappy Martin Luther team on Tuesday night, 88-74.
Kies made good on 8-of-15 shots from the field, including 3-of-6 from downtown to reach the 20-point plateau for the third time in the last four games and now sits second all-time in school history with 151 career three-point makes. She also hauled in five rebounds, dished out three assists and recorded two steals.
Gilley, meanwhile, posted her third double-double of the year. Seven of her 13 points came at the free-throw line. Eight of her 24 rebounds were on the offensive end. She also tallied three blocks and had two steals.
Sophomore Lexi Fisher chipped in with 14 points, on 6-of-10 shooting, and also added five rebounds, two assists and two steals. Lacey Vokt made four of her five attempts from the field and 3-of-4 at the free-throw line to turn in 11 points, while dishing out a team-leading five assists.
The game was back-and-forth for most of the first half with neither team leading by more than four until a pair of free-throws from Shelby Wiederhoeft made it a 30-25 Beaver lead with 7:05 left. Sidney Beckman hit a three-pointer to push the margin to 35-27 two minutes later.
The Knights (1-3) got back within 35-31 before the Beavers closed the half on a 13-6 run to take a 48-37 lead into the half.
The lead extended to 18 (55-37) just three minutes into the second half. BVU continued to lead 59-41 after a Nicole Snyder jumper two minutes later before the Knights slowly chipped away at that lead and getting back to within 63-59 with just under eight minutes to play.
A layup from Wiederhoeft and two free-throws from Kies bumped the lead back to eight before it went back up into double-digits on a pair of Gilley free-throws with five minutes left.
Fisher and Kies drilled back-to-back three-pointers to bump it back to 17 and that proved to be all the Beavers would need to secure the win.
The Beavers finished the game shooting 50 percent from the field, including 6-of-14 from long distance, despite making only 18-of-27 at the free-throw line.
The win pushes the team's overall record to 5-3, and they will look to caputre their second three-game win streak of the year on Saturday afternoon when they entertain Northwestern-St. Paul at 2:00pm.