STORM LAKE, Iowa - The Coe College men's basketball team suffered a 95-81 loss to Buena Vista University on Thursday evening in the second round of the American Rivers Conference Tournament. The Beavers were on fire in the opening half, building a 10-point lead at the break after shooting 10-of-13 from 3 in the first. Coe battled back in the second, cutting the deficit to as little as eight with over seven minutes remaining but Buena Vista had an answer for every Kohawk run. Overall, the Beavers shot 56.9 percent from the field and 59.1 from beyond the arc. With the loss, Coe ends the year with a record of 20-7 overall and 11-5 in the A-R-C. The 20-win season is Coe's first since the 2005-06 campaign when the Kohawks went 20-7 overall.
Coe's leading scorer
Jarad Kruse filled the role once again, finishing with 28 points and 11 rebounds to pick up his sixth double-double of the season. The senior capped off an excellent career playing a team-high 35 minutes while adding one assist and one steal on D.
Cael Schmitt was the other Kohawk in double-figures, posting 15 points, five assists and three boards while tying Kruse with 35 minutes played.
Greg Hall added nine points off the bench for Coe, shooting 3-of-5 from downtown in 23 minutes. Senior trio
Jacob Robertson,
Ray Thrapp and
Sam Auen finished with eight, seven and seven points respectively while Robertson pulled down 10 boards to finish second on the team.
BUENA VISTA 95 - COE 81
Game Facts
- Coe got the opening bucket of the game as Auen connected on a 3 just over a minute and a half into the contest. Buena Vista answered with a dominant stretch over the next five-plus minutes, outscoring Coe 15-2 during the span. The Beavers were on fire offensively, going 5-of-5 from the floor and 3-of-3 from downtown to grab an early 15-5 lead. The Kohawks and Beavers went back and forth a three-minute stretch, but Coe narrowly edged BVU 8-6 to slice the deficit to eight.
- The hosts continued to fire on the offensive end, ripping off a 13-8 run before the six-minute mark of the half to push the lead to 13. The run featured five points from guard Micahel Santich who scored a pair of buckets including a 3. The squads traded buckets for the next two-plus minutes but the Beavers hit a trio of 3s to slightly outscore Coe 13-10. Coe struck back before the end of the first half, ripping off a 12-6 run over the final three minutes to draw within 10 at the break.
- Coe continued to cut into the lead early in the second half, making it single digits at 64-55 after Kruse hit a pair of free throws. Buena Vista answered despite seeing their lead diminish, putting together a 9-4 spurt during the next 1:44 of game time. The Kohawks continued to hang around despite trailing for a majority of the game, going on a 13-7 run over the course of a four-minute span, cutting the deficit to just eight with 7:19 to play.
- The Beavers immediately responded, getting a 3-ball from Michael Demers which pushed their lead back to 11 at 83-72. Both teams struggled offensively for the next two-plus minutes but Kruse scored six-straight points for the Kohawks to quickly slice the lead back to eight. Neither team scored during the next two minutes of game time as BVU led by 86-78 with less than two minutes remaining. Coe then began to foul the Beavers but the hosts converted some clutch freebies in crunch time to secure the victory and move into the A-R-C championship game.
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