Strong Second Half Surge Lifts BVU past Dubuque

Junior Alex Lynott (Hawarden, Iowa/West Sioux) came off the bench and scored a career-high 12 second half points, including five straight points sparking a key 13-2 run with seven minutes left which helped lift the Buena Vista women’s basketball team to a commanding 70-58 home victory over the University of Dubuque on Wednesday night.

Lynott records her first career double-digit scoring game, surpassing her previous high of nine set earlier this season at Crown College.  She finished Wednesday’s game shooting 5-of-6 from the field, including 2-of-2 from downtown, while playing 14 minutes.

Junior Susan Kies (Fonda, Iowa/Newell-Fonda) went 2-of-3 from downtown and 4-of-4 at the free-throw line to finish with a team-high 14 points, as freshman Lexi Fisher (Glenwood, Iowa/Glenwood) hit a team-leading three long range buckets to follow with 13 points.

Senior Brooke Wehle (Denison, Iowa/Denison-Schleswig), who surpassed 200 career assists on Saturday at Loras, added to her total against the Spartans by dishing out six assists.  Fellow senior Tara Lehner (Le Mars, Iowa/Le Mars) posted her 10^th double-digit rebounding game of the year, hauling in a game-high 13.

BVU trailed by 12 near the 3:00 mark of the first half before a three-pointer by Fisher sparked a key 10-0 run over the final two minutes of the half, capped by Kies drilling a three-pointer at the buzzer and getting BVU within 31-29 at the half.

After the Spartans quickly pushed the lead back to six nearly three minutes into the second half, Fisher buried back-to-back long-range buckets to even things up at 38-38.

A free-throw by sophomore Becca Pennington (Mt. Ayr, Iowa/Mt. Ayr) at the 15:47 mark gave BVU its first lead of the game (39-38).  After the Spartans had later regained a 42-41 advantage, Lynott drilled the first of her three-point shots followed by a layup to give BVU a four-point cushion at 46-42.

The two teams then went back-and-forth over the next seven minutes before Lynott hit a jumper and then nailed a three following a turnover to put BVU right back up by four with seven minutes to go.  Junior Malarie Gilley (Grand Junction, Iowa/East Greene) made it seven straight points for the Beavers with her jumper, and Lynott hit another shot to bump it to 64-56 with just over two minutes to play.

Pennington then hit two free-throws, while Kies hit all four of hers down the stretch to give BVU the 12-point triumph.

After shooting just 10-of-32 overall in the first half, the Beavers responded by connecting on better than 48 percent in the second half.  They made 8-of-16 attempts from downtown.

Defensively, the team held Dubuque to just 36 percent shooting over the final 20 minutes, including just 2-of-14 from long range.

Mollie Whiting, the IIAC’s leading scoring coming in, was right at her average with a game-high 22 points to lead the Spartans.

Buena Vista improves to 10-12 overall (3-8 IIAC) and will entertain Luther College on Saturday afternoon in a 4:00pm contest.  It will also be Alumni Day for BVU with the junior varsity women taking on the BVU Alumni at 12:00pm.

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