The Buena Vista men's basketball team couldn't overcome a rough second half shooting performance on Wednesday night and had its five-game overall win streak snapped by the University of Dubuque (16-6, 6-5 IIAC), 73-58.

BVU came out and made 6-of-10 attempts from downtown and were 12-of-24 overall in the first half, while overcoming an 11-point deficit to get within 39-37 at the break.

That hot shooting went cold in the second for BVU, which shot only 28 percent from the floor and only 1-of-14 from long range. 

The Spartans, who made 11-of-17 shots from beyond the arc in the contest, hit three in the span of two minutes to start the second half and quickly opened up a 16-point lead (53-37).

BVU made just one bucket over the first five minutes of the half and scored only four points during the first seven.

A pair of free-throws from senior Wes Nordquist (Adel, Iowa/ADM) and a layup from fellow senior Tyler Pleiss (Omaha, Neb./Ralston) got the Beavers as close as 12 with nine minutes to go, but that proved to be as close as the team would get. 

The Spartans answered with yet another three and maintained the 15-point margin the rest of the way.

Sophomore Cole Darrow (Glenwood, Iowa/Glenwood) turned in a team-high 13 points for BVU, as Troy Ticknor (Adel, Iowa/ADM), who nailed two early three-point buckets, followed with 12.  Nordquist, who surpassed 1,500 career points in the contest, added eight points and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.

Dubuque, which shot 48 percent from the field in the game, got a game-high 16 points from Isaiah Reeves, on 5-of-7 shooting from downtown.

The Beavers, who were ranked sixth in the first NCAA Regional rankings released late Wednesday afternoon, are now 16-6 overall (8-3 IIAC), and will look to rebound with a pivotal home game against league-leading Luther College (16-6, 9-2 IIAC) on Saturday evening at 6:00pm.