With Buena Vista trailing 58-56, Wittry drove into the lane and made a leaner. He was fouled on the shot and drained the free throw to give the Beavers a 59-58 edge. On its next possession, Loras turned the ball over with 14 seconds remaining.
Buena Vista's Nesha Francic was fouled and made the first of two free throws attempts to put the Beavers in front 60-58. His second shot missed the mark, and was rebounded by Loras. Without taking a timeout, the Duhawks pushed the ball up the floor. Luke Slater put up an off-balanced shot in the paint with four seconds remaining that fell short. Jeff Bissen grabbed the game-clinching rebound for Buena Vista and heaved the ball up the floor to run the rest of the time off the clock.
Bissen scored a team-high 11 points and grabbed eight rebounds for Buena Vista, which trailed 31-25 at halftime. The Beavers scored the first 12 points of the second half and held the Duhawks without a field goal for over eight minutes in the second half.
Wittry concluded the evening with nine points, five rebounds, and four assists. Jesse Schmidt contributed nine points and nine rebounds as Buena Vista outrebounded Loras 44-29.
Scottie Braden scored a game-high 15 points off of the Duhawks bench. Slater added 10 as Loras turned the ball over just eight times in the entire contest. Loras fell to 14-6 with the loss, 7-4 in the IIAC.
Buena Vista, now 8-12 on the year and 6-5 in the conference, was able to overcome cold shooting from long range. The Beavers were just 4 of 22 (18%) from three-point range. BVU shot 14 of 18 (78%) from the charity stripe.
Loras, which has dropped three of its last four games, shot 17 of 50 (34%) from the field. The Duhawks made just six field goals in the second half, five of which came from behind the arc.
Buena Vista will continue conference play by traveling to conference leading Coe College on Tuesday, February 7.
Loras College vs Buena Vista University 2/4/06 6:00 pm at Storm Lake, Iowa At Storm Lake, Iowa BUENA VISTA UNIVERSITY 60, LORAS COLLEGE 58 LORAS COLLEGE (14-6, 7-4 IIAC) BRADEN, Scottie 4-7 4-4 15; SLATER, Luke 3-9 2-3 10; STINEMAN, Bobby 2-8 3-4 8; KING, Greg 2-8 2-3 7; WHITE, Kyle 1-4 3-4 5; DEIKE, Scott 1-2 2-2 4; OETH, Jake 2-4 0-0 4; SULLIVAN, Gavin 1-2 0-1 3; CENTELLA, Brian 1-6 0-0 2; ROWE, Reggie 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-50 16-21 58. BUENA VISTA UNIVERSITY (8-12, 6-5 IIAC) BISSEN, Jeff 3-6 4-4 11; SCHMIDT, Jesse 4-6 0-0 9; WITTRY, Matt 4-8 1-2 9; PERSON, Travis 3-4 0-0 6; FOGLEMAN, Brian 3-7 0-2 6; JOEKEL, Mark 0-2 6-6 6; FRANCIC, Nesha 2-3 1-2 5; WAGNER, Andre 1-9 0-0 3; HOLTON, Eric 1-2 0-0 3; FRANKLIN, Rahn 0-5 2-2 2; GRIMM, Nolan 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 21-54 14-18 60. Loras College................. 31 27 - 58 Buena Vista University........ 25 35 - 60 3-point goals-Loras College 8-25 (BRADEN, Scottie 3-5; SLATER, Luke 2-4; SULLIVAN, Gavin 1-2; STINEMAN, Bobby 1-5; KING, Greg 1-4; CENTELLA, Brian 0-2; OETH, Jake 0-2; WHITE, Kyle 0-1), Buena Vista University 4-22 (WAGNER, Andre 1-6; SCHMIDT, Jesse 1-1; BISSEN, Jeff 1-3; HOLTON, Eric 1-2; JOEKEL, Mark 0-2; FRANKLIN, Rahn 0-2; GRIMM, Nolan 0-2; PERSON, Travis 0-1; WITTRY, Matt 0-3). Fouled out--Loras College-WHITE, Kyle, Buena Vista University-FOGLEMAN, Brian. Rebounds-Loras College 29 (KING, Greg 9), Buena Vista University 44 (SCHMIDT, Jesse 9). Assists-Loras College 9 (STINEMAN, Bobby 6), Buena Vista University 13 (WITTRY, Matt 4). Total fouls-Loras College 20, Buena Vista University 23. A-1100