Senior Wes Nordquist (Adel, Iowa/ADM) scored a game-high 28 points and grabbed nine rebounds to help lead a valiant Beaver comeback on Saturday afternoon en route to a thrilling 74-71 road victory at Loras College (7-14, 2-8 IIAC).
Nordquist finished the game shooting 9-of-13 from the field and 10-of-13 at the free-throw line. The performance comes after he was held to only four shots and four points during the team's win at Simpson on Wednesday.
BVU trailed 67-58 with 4:35 remaining before freshman Nick Clark (Fort Dodge, Iowa/St. Edmond) nailed a three-pointer and then stole the ball away and found Cole Darrow (Glenwood, Iowa/Glenwood) for a layup, getting BVU back within four with just over three minutes left.
Nordquist then went on a scoring spree, scoring the next 11 points for the Beavers, including the go-ahead free-throw with 1:15 left before extending the margin to three at 72-69 with his layup off a nice feed from Clark, who dished out a career-high five assists.
Loras stayed close with a bucket in the paint with 15 seconds left, but Nordquist made 1-of-2 free-throws on back-to-back trips and the Duhawks' last-second three-point heave at the buzzer was off target.
Darrow, as well as senior Tyler Pleiss (Omaha, Neb./Ralston), was also in double-figures with 12 and 10 points, respectively, with Pleiss also chiming in with five rebounds.
Loras scored the first seven points of the game and kept BVU out of the lead until Darrow put the Beavers on top for the first time at 38-36 with under 30 seconds left in the first half. The Duhawks answered that basket with one of their own to tie things up at the half.
BVU came out and shot 55 percent from the field throughout the first 20 minutes before struggling to a 36 percent effort in the second half.
The Duhawks then opened the second half with an 18-6 spurt and built the game's largest lead at 56-44 with nearly eight minutes gone by. They continued to lead by 10 midway through the half before Clark hit a couple free-throws and Pleiss followed with three straight points to get BVU back within five.
Loras then built the margin back to nine before the Beavers went on their late-game comeback.
Nordquist made nearly half the team's free-throws, as BVU finished 20-of-24 for the game.
The win kept the team tied atop the league standings with Luther, while also clinching it a spot into this year's Iowa Conference Tournament.
The Beavers have won five games in a row to improve to 16-5 on the year and 8-2 in the IIAC. The team now returns home to play three of its final four regular season games inside of Siebens Fieldhouse, beginning with Wednesday night's 8:00pm game against the University of Dubuque (15-6, 5-5 IIAC).