In her first game since being named the Iowa Conference Female Athlete of the Week on Tuesday, Buena Vista junior guard Susan Kies (Fonda, Iowa/Newell-Fonda) poured in a career-high 28 points, including a career-best six three-point buckets, to help lead the Beavers to a 77-67 non-conference road victory at Martin Luther College (1-6) on Thursday night.

Kies connected on 9-of-19 overall from the floor, including 6-of-13 attempts from downtown, while also sinking all four free-throw opportunities.  Her six three-point makes are the most for any BVU player since Katie Maguire drained seven back in 2005-06 against St. Olaf College.

Freshman Lexi Fisher (Glenwood, Iowa/Glenwood) was also in double figures with 10 points, to go along with four steals, while senior Brooke Wehle (Denison, Iowa/Denison-Schleswig) scored nine points, grabbed six boards, and dished out six assists.  Tara Lehner (Le Mars, Iowa/Le Mars) was a force defensively, grabbing eight rebounds and chalking up a career-best six steals.

Buena Vista finished the game shooting nearly 47 percent from the field, including 39 percent from beyond the arc (11-of-28).

The Vikings had their only lead of the night at 5-4 before BVU went on a 24-6 spurt to build a 28-11 advantage with 8:21 left in the first half.  Back-to-back buckets by Martin Luther cut the lead down to 13, but BVU would then hold the Vikings without a field goal for seven minutes until a three-pointer with 22 seconds left in the opening half made it a 38-20 halftime score.

The Beavers, who led by as many as 21 in the first half, got the lead back to that same margin five minutes into the second on a three-pointer from Lehner, but back came the Vikings with eight unanswered points over the next two minutes to claw back within 13.

Martin Luther continued to chip away and got back within single digits at 59-50 with 7:34 left, but Kies answered with a three to push it back to 12, and the Beavers led by double-digits the rest of the way.

Hannah Hackbarth, turned in a team-leading 22 points for MLC.

BVU has now won four straight games overall to improve to 5-3 on the year.  It will have a week off before returning to the court on Thursday, December 13 for a 7:00pm non-conference road contest at the College of St. Mary before traveling out west to California for a pair of Christmas Break games on December 15 and 16.