A hot shooting, board crashing Buena Vista ballclub was more than the Simpson men’s basketball team could handle Wednesday night.

The Beavers (8-6, 3-0 IIAC) held on to its win over the Storm (2-12, 0-3 IIAC), 86-75.

Buena Vista, which is tied for first place in the Iowa Conference standings with Dubuque, shot 50 percent (33-for-66) from the field and outrebounded Simpson 48-28. The Beavers capitalized on its offensive rebounds, scoring 19 second-chance points.

Without having the presence of leading scorer and rebounder Austin Hennings and his 15.8 points per game and 8.8 rebounds per game, Simpson made due with 11 players seeing action on the floor. The Storm tied it up 22-all off a pair of Chad Gutschenritter free throws with 8:41 remaining in the first half, but the Beavers put its burners on and headed into halftime with a 40-31 advantage.

Never holding the lead throughout the 40 minutes of play, Simpson made it interesting twice in the second half – coming as close as just one point from tying the game back up. Ryan Skaar hit a big, 3-point basket that made the score 65-64 at the 7:58 mark, and Eric Lande made things interesting with a nice mid-range jump shot with 6:15 remaining at 67-66. Buena Vista would later go on a 19-9 run until the final buzzer.

Buena Vista tallied four players in double-digits, led by Cole Darrow and his 19 points. Darrow shot 7-of-16 from the field and sank 5-of-6 from the charity stripe. The 6-11, 260 lbs. Nick Wuebker posted a double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds, five grabs offensively. Brett Heitkamp scored 12 points and Grady Gallagher with 10.

Gutschenritter and Charles Swain were the top scores for Simpson, both recording 18 points. Lande finished the night with his addition of 12.

Simpson will host Luther on Saturday as both teams search for its first Iowa Conference win. Tipoff is set at 4 p.m., following the women’s contest.

Be sure to follow The Simpsonian’s athletics’ twitter feed (@SimpAthletics) all season long for continuous updates and live coverage at all games.