CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - The opening night of the Iowa Conference Men's Basketball Tournament was full of excitement and upsets as both road teams pulled upsets. No. 6 Seed Buena Vista won 87-58 versus No. 3 Simpson while No. 5 Central beat No. 4 Loras 84-79.
The Beavers and Dutch will stay on the road for the semifinals games on Thursday, February 25. Buena Vista will make the nearly three hour trip to Waverly for one semifinal game while Central will travel to Iowa Conference Champion Dubuque. Start time for both games is 7:00 p.m.
No. 6 Buena Vista - 87, No. 3 Simpson-58 BOX SCORE
The Beavers jumped out to an early 9-2 lead and would not trail the entire game. Simpson would pull with three at 18-15 near the midway point of the first half before BVU counter with a 19-2 run with four three-pointers to stretch their lead to 37-17. A three-pointer by
Nick Clark stretched the lead to 46-29 at the half.
The second half was all Buena Vista as well with the lead eventually peaking at 34 points (71-37).
Kennedy Drey led the Beavers with 18 points, 12 rebounds, 4 steals, and 3 assists.
Sam Amsbaugh was the leading scorer for Simpson with 12 points.
No. 5 Central - 84, No. 4 Loras - 79 BOX SCORE
The Dutch pulled off their third win of the season versus Loras and will be making their fourth trip to Dubuque in two weeks when they take on the Spartans in the semifinals. With the score tied 10-10 at the 13:54 mark, Central went on a 16-3 run with
Pete Walker scoring six of his game high 30 points during the four minute stretch. Loras would cut the lead back to single digits before the half at 32-25.
Walker led the Dutch with 30 points and four steals as Central was able to hold on late as Loras cut the lead to one with less than two minutes left in the game. Holding on to a one point lead, Central turned to Colby Taylor in both instances with two clutch jumpers to hold off the Duhawks.
