STORM LAKE, Iowa (February 24, 2022) - Sophomore Zane Neubaum scored a game and career-high 32 points, senior Michael Demers added 20, and the Buena Vista men's basketball team used a 13-of-22 shooting effort from long range to help send them past No. 3 seed Coe College, 95-81, on Thursday night during an American Rivers Conference semifinal game inside of Siebens Fieldhouse.

BVU came out of the gate and made 10-of-13 attempts from beyond the arc in the first half to open a 53-43 lead.  The Kohawks held an early 5-3 lead, but that was the only time in the contest they had the advantage. BVU used a 12-0 run to lead 15-5 less than six minutes into the contest.  The team led by as many as 17 late in the half and never looked back, improving to 31-14 all-time in the conference tournament and 26-7 on its home court..

Coe did manage to hang around in the second by getting within eight points on multiple occasions.  It was an 80-72 contest with just over 7:00 remaining but Demers nailed one of his two long range shots followed by a layup to quickly extend the cushion back to 12.  The Kohawks again made it an eight-point contest with under 4:00 left but the Beavers iced it at the free-throw line by making nine of its final 10 attempts down the stretch and improving to 7-0 against Coe all-time in the conference tournament.

Neubaum finished the game shooting 10-of-17 overall, including 4-of-6 from downtown.  He's now scored at least 20 points in four straight games (all wins) and his 32 points tonight was the third-highest single-game total in the A-R-C this season and the second-highest by a Beaver player (Garrett Sittner, 38 at Wartburg).  Demers made 2-of-4  from distance but did the most damage at the free-throw line where he sunk 10-of-12.  Both players grabbed six rebounds while Neubaum added three blocks and Demers four assists.

Sophomore Michael Santich was 3-of-6 from three-point range and turned in 13 points, five rebounds and six assists while senior Jake Thompson added 12 points, five rebounds and a game-high seven assists.  He now needs six helpers to break the program's all-time single-season mark of 148 set by Casey Pelzer in 2003-4.

As a team, the Beavers made 29-of-51 field goal attempts in the contest (.569) and were also 24-of-30 at the charity stripe (.800).

Jarad Kruse led Coe with 28 points and 11 rebounds as the Kohawks close out their season at 20-7 overall.

For the second straight season and the 11th time in program history, the Beavers (15-11) will play in the tournament championship game.  BVU and Dubuque will face-off for the second straight season in the title game with the winner earning the league's automatic berth into the NCAA DIII Tournament.  The Beavers will be looking to make their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2011-12. 

Saturday's game inside the Stoltz Center on the UD campus is tentatively set for 7:00 p.m.