CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- The University of Dubuque defeated Buena Vista University 78-64 Saturday, March 13 to claim the 2021 American Rivers Conference Men's Basketball title and cap off a perfect 14-0 season.
It was BVU's
Michael Demers who put the first points on the board with a fast break layup at the 19:34 mark. The Beavers would not surrender their lead until 15:14 to go in the first half when UD's
Levi Scheuermann hit a 3-pointer to make the score 15-13. With 12:43 on the clock BVU began what would be a 10 point run, putting them up seven until 8:47 remaining in the first. The Beavers extended their lead to as much as 14 in the first half but UD was not about to quit. Two 3-pointers and and a couple made jumpers inside of 2:30 sent the teams to halftime with UD trailing by five, 43-38.
The second half began with Demers driving the lane for a layup to once again start the scoring for BVU. The two teams exchanged buckets for the first six minutes of the second half, but a
Peter Ragen 3-pointer with 13:49 to go finally trimmed the BVU lead to four, 54-50. A
Sam Kilburg 3-pointer with 6:48 remaining in the game gave Dubuque their first lead of the second half, 59-57. The Beavers would take back the lead one more time on a
Michael Santich three, but it was UD who took charge in the final six minutes. Between 6:07 and 2:17 the Spartans went on a 15-0 run to lead 74-60, before closing out their title with a final score of 78-64.
Dubuque had four players reach double digit scoring figures, paced by
Patrick Mayfield with 22. Ragen
added 15 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Regan also led the Spartans in steals and blocked shots with four each. Scheuermann was the team's third leading scorer (14) and second leading rebounder (6). Kilburg rounded out the Spartan players in double figures with 11.
As a team UD shot 51.0% (26-of-51) from the field, 51.9% (14-of-27) from deep, and 60.0% (12-of-20) at the free throw line.
Head coach
Robbie Sieverding has now guided the UD men's basketball program to their ninth Conference Championship and second under the direction of Sieverding.
Buena Vista's Demers led the charge on championship night with a game-high 24 points.
Zane Neubaum contributed 10, followed by
Jake Thompson with nine, and
Jacob Privia with eight. Grabbing a team-best seven rebounds was Thompson.
Garrett Sittner brought down six boards for the team's second-highest total.
The Beavers finished the night 26-of-60 (43.3%) from the field, 9-of-27 (33.3%) from 3-point range, and 3-of-5 (60.0%) from the free throw line.
Buena Vista, playing in its 11th conference championship game, finishes the season 9-3.
Due to a Covid- altered regular season schedule that employed an eight-game single round-robin, in place of the typical 16-game double round-robin, the coaches and Athletic Directors approved recognizing a single Conference Champion in lieu of a regular season and tournament champion. With this, the coaches and Athletic Directors approved, for the first time, an all-comers tournament, which usually has six participants, that would determine the 2021 Conference Champion.
