SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Beaten on the boards 49-31 and unable to stop the power game of Buena Vista University's stout 6-7 center Wes Nordquist, the George Fox University Bruins dropped an 82-73 decision in overtime to the Beavers in the second round of the D-III National Invitational Tournament Wednesday night here at Trinity University's Webster Gym.

The Beavers from Storm Lake, Iowa, stormed out to an 8-0 lead on three-pointers by Jeff Janssen and Andy Puhrmann around a layup by Nordquist before the Bruins caught fire.  Threes by Anthony Sanchez, A.J. Grant, and Jon Adrian fueled a 14-5 George Fox run, capped by a Mike Taylor drive that gave the Bruins a 14-13 lead with 10:23 to go in the half.

The Bruins' lead was short-lived, though.  Janssen converted a four-point play 17 seconds later to give the Beavers the edge again, and they maintained a slim margin the rest of the half until a layup by Nordquist with 1:15 left gave Buena Vista a 36-28 halftime bulge.

After shooting only .345 (10-29) from the field in the first half, the Bruins came out blazing in the second half, aided by a full-court trap that forced four Buena Vista turnovers in a two-and-a-half minute span.  A layup and free throw by Sean Atkins ignited a 15-0 scoring run by the Bruins that featured two layups and a three-pointer by Sanchez.  When Grant ended the run with a trey, the Bruins had a 43-36 lead with 17:23 remaining.

A basket by Trent Fisher and a three-point play by Joe Bohan got the Beavers back in the game, and from that point on, neither team had more than a three-point lead in regulation.  In the final 15 minutes of the period, there were nine lead changes and 12 ties.  Janssen's three with 20 seconds left gave Buena Vista a 68-66 lead, but Atkins calmly canned two free throws with 3.3 seconds left to send the game into overtime, the Bruins' second straight game with an extra period and third this season.

Nordquist gave the Beavers a 70-68 advantage with a layup 15 seconds into the overtime, but Atkins again converted a three-point play to give the Bruins their only lead at 71-70 with 4:07 left.  Nordquist then scored each of the Beavers' next nine points on four strong layups and a free throw, boosting Buena Vista to a 79-73 lead with 47 seconds to go.  The Bruins did not score in the final three minutes of overtime and were 2-9 from the field in the period, while the Beavers went 5-7, all by Nordquist.

Sanchez led the Bruins with a career-high 24 points, hitting 9-15 from the field, and had eight rebounds.  Taylor added 16 points and six assists, and Atkins scored 11 points while making five steals.  The Bruins finished with a .379 shooting percentage (25-66), and made only 9-33 from long range (.273).

Nordquist hit 11-15 from the floor and 6-10 from the line en route to a double-double of 28 points and 18 boards, while also handing out a team-high four assists.  Janssen scored 15 points, Puhrmann chipped in with 11, and Bohan, another big post player for the Beavers, hit 4-5 shots and scored nine points.  Doug Bissen aided on the boards with 13 rebounds.  Buena Vista shot .492 (29-59) from the field, including 15-24 (.625) over the final 25 minutes.

NEXT: George Fox (4-7) has completed non-conference play and now returns to Northwest Conference action on Tuesday, Jan. 3, with an 8:00 p.m. game at Lewis & Clark College.  The men's game will be preceded at 6:00 p.m. by the women's NWC game … Buena Vista (5-6) hosts Cornell College of Iowa on Wednesday, Jan. 4, at 8:00 p.m. Central time.