In what turned out to be a wild finish to regulation and then again in overtime, it was junior Michael Kaufmann's (Harlan, Iowa/Harlan) jumper just inside the three-point line with under three seconds remaining that sent the Buena Vista men's basketball team past Simpson College on Wednesday night, 76-74.
Senior Troy Ticknor (Adel, Iowa/ADM) had pushed the BVU lead to 74-71 with 22 seconds left in the extra period. The lead was short-lived, however, as the Storm came back down the floor and buried a three-pointer to even things up at 74-74 with 11 seconds left.
BVU did not call timeout and Kaufmann brought the ball around to the left side of the basket, stepped inside of the three-point line and drilled the jumper with under three ticks left. Simpson called timeout, and floated a pass near their free-throw line which was intercepted to secure the win for the Beavers.
BVU nearly won things in regulation after senior Tyler Pleiss (Omaha, Neb./Ralston) stole the ball right in front of the Simpson bench and went the length of the floor for a layup to give BVU a 65-63 lead with just 11 seconds left. The Storm, however, had another answer getting a bucket in the paint with four seconds left, and BVU had a good look at the buzzer, but came up short to send things into OT.
Pleiss led BVU on the night with a career-high 21 points on 10-of-16 shooting. He surpasses his previous career-high of 15 which he set on Saturday in the win over Central. Ticknor, who hit his first three three-point attempts on the night, finished with 13 points and a pair of steals.
After shooting 6-of-14 from downtown in the first half, the Beavers connected on just 1-of-11 attempts from long range over the final 20 minutes. They also trailed by as many as seven points in the second half.
Sophomore Greg Sibenaller (Hornick, Iowa/Westwood) hauled in a team-leading nine rebounds with senior Wes Nordquist (Adel, Iowa/ADM) following with six. Nordquist, who has 12 double-doubles on the year, took only three shots in the game and finished with just four points. As a team, BVU finished the contest shooting 43 percent from the field and made 13-of-19 at the charity stripe. It also scored at least 75 points for the fourth time in its last five games, and picks up its first win in Indianola since 2008-09 season (91-66)..
Simpson shot nearly 47 percent from the field overall and was led by Austin Hennings' 32 points and 14 rebounds.
BVU has now won four straight games and reaches the 15-win plateau for the year for the 16th time in 17 seasons under head coach Brian VanHaaften. The team, 15-5 overall, 7-2 IIAC will look to make it five straight when it travels to Loras College (6-13, 1-7 IIAC) for a 4:00pm tip-off on Saturday. The Duhawks host league-leading Luther College (14-5, 6-2 IIAC) on Thursday night. That game was rescheduled from Wednesday due to the poor weather conditions.