CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – The Coe College men's basketball team took sole possession of third place in the American Rivers Conference with an 81-72 victory over Buena Vista on Saturday afternoon. Coe held a slim five-point lead after one half but outscored Buena Vista 13-0 to kick off the second, taking complete control of the contest. The victory moves the Kohawks to 14-9 overall and 9-5 in the league with three games remaining in the regular season. 
 
Adam McDermott led the team with 25 points, six rebounds and four assists while fellow seniors Austin Roth (19 points, three blocks and two rebounds) and Tommy Hook (13 points, two boards and one steal) joined him in double-figures. TJ Kaufmann came off the bench to provide nine points while hitting two 3s and pulling down two boards. Despite finishing with zero points, Josh Schmitt recorded seven assists and three rebounds while committing just two turnovers in 33 minutes of action. 
 
It was a tight game right from the jump as the squads went back-and-forth in the opening minutes of the half with neither team pulling away. BV's Timothy Jeffries then hit a 3 to give the Beavers a 5-4 lead with 17:43 left in the period but the Kohawks outscored the Beavers 10-2 in the next few minutes to take the lead at 14-7. The teams began to once again trade buckets but the Kohawks got back-to-back scores to stretch the lead to nine points with 11:35 remaining in the half. 
 
The Beavers slowly began to chip away at the Kohawk lead over the next few minutes, ripping off a 14-5 spurt to tie the score at 23 with 6;16 left in the period. McDermott slowed the BV run, connecting on a 3 to give him nine points in the game but the Beavers then scored six-straight to take a three-point lead with just under four to play in the opening half. Coe then answered with a run of its own, putting together a 10-3 spurt over a 2:15 stretch to regain a four-point lead at 36-32 with just under a minute to play. The teams then traded buckets for the final moments of the half but a buzzer-beating 3 from McDermott pushed the Kohawk lead to five at the break.
 
Coe exploded out of the half, scoring the first 13 points including 3s from McDermott, Hook and Roth, pushing its lead to 18 points with 17:46 left in the game. Despite its largest deficit of the game, BVU hung tough and slowly put together a 16-7 stretch to cut the lead to single digits before the mid-way point of the second half. The Kohawks finally stopped the Beaver run thanks to a bucket from Jarad Kruse, pushing the lead back to double-digits but a 9-5 Beaver run got them within six points with 6:04 to play. At this point, Coe buckled down, ripping off a 13-2 outburst over the next two-plus minutes of the half to put the game out of reach for the Beavers. 
 
Up next: Coe returns to action on Wednesday for its final home game of the regular season when the Kohawks host Dubuque at 7:30 p.m. 
 
#KohawkNation
Visit https://kohawkathletics.com/ for complete coverage of Coe College Athletics
Like Coe College Athletics on Facebook
Follow @CoeAthletics on Twitter
Follow @CoeAthletics on Instagram
Coe Athletics Mobile App - Android | iPhone