INDIANOLA, Iowa (Nov. 12, 2022) - Junior Zane Neubaum turned in a career-high 37 points, Simon Daniel added 22 points, eight rebounds and five assists, and the duo helped lead the Buena Vista men's basketball team to a big 80-72 comeback win on Saturday night in the season opener against Westminster College during the opening game of the SLIAC/A-R-C Challenge.
Neubaum did a chunk of his work at the free-throw line, making a career-best 16-of-20 attempts. He finished the night shooting 10-of-16 from the field overall, and knocked down his only three-point attempt during a big stretch late in the game. Daniel was 9-of-18 shooting, including a team-best four made long range buckets. Daniel posted career-highs in points, rebounds and assists while his four treys were also a career-best.
Ryan Mendoza just missed out on double figures in his BVU debut, turning in eight points in 24 minutes. Michael Santich came up big defensively with four rebounds and four steals while being held to just three points.
BVU struggled to get the shots to fall in the first half, being held to under 27 percent but responded in the second half to connect on 57 percent. As a team, the Beavers made eight three-point buckets and went 20-of-27 at the free-throw line.
The Bluejays used a 9-0 early in the first half to build a 16-8 lead and maintained that margin until late in the half when they extended the cushion to as many as 18 before taking a 39-24 lead to the locker room.
Buena Vista wasted no time getting itself back into the contest, going on a 14-0 run over the first three minutes of the second half to get within 39-38. Neubaum's layup made it a 41-41 contest just minutes later before Westminster rolled off four straight points and remained in the lead at 60-52 with 7:41 remaining and kept in front by eight at 70-62 with just over two minutes to go. Daniel hit a three-pointer to make it a five-point margin before Neubaum drilled his only trey with 1:11 on the clock to pull BVU within 72-71. Neuabaum was big down the stretch for the Beavers, coming up with the go-ahead layup and free-throw to put BVU in front 74-72 with 41 seconds left.
On the next trip down the floor, Neubaum came up with the block and rebound for BVU while Westminster was called for a technical foul. Neubaum went back down to the other end and sank a pair of free-throws to make it a four-point cushion. He would go on to make four more free-throws inside the final 30 seconds to score the team's final 15 points.
Westminster (0-1) was led by Jaxon Althaus' 30 points and eight rebounds while Ben Eberlin followed with 12 points and seven boards.
Buena Vista is 1-0 on the year and returns to action on Sunday afternoon to take on Fontbonne at 1 p.m. The Griffins are playing Simpson in the late game on Saturday night.