Box ScoreWAVERLY, Iowa-- The Wartburg men's basketball team advanced to the Iowa Conference Tournament Championship game with its 93-88 OT win over top-seed Buena Vista Thursday. The Knights advanced to the Championship game for the first time since 2013 (when they also faced Dubuque) and eighth overall appearance since the tournament started in 1999.
The winner of the Dubuque/Wartburg game will receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
"We feel fortunate to advance after being down eight points with less than three minutes to play," said head coach Dick Peth. "However, our guys kept their composure and played outstanding basketball on both ends of the floor."
Host-BV was ahead 41-35 at halftime, but the Knights outscored them 49-43 in the second frame to force overtime. The Orange and Black opened the first three minutes of the second half on an 13-3 run to take the 48-44 lead. The Beavers stormed back as they took the lead at 56-55 with 13:43 to go. Wartburg then built its margin to 12 with 9:25 to play, but BV was not backing down without a fight as they led by eight with 2:41 left (82-74).
The Knights compiled a 7-2 run over the next 2:33 and sophomore Jordan Cannon (Bolingbrook, Ill.) sent the game to overtime with his trey with eight seconds remaining in regulation.
The extra session was all Wartburg as it outscored BV 9-4 to seal the upset win.
Cannon not only led all scorers with his career-high 32 points, but set a new single-game school record in the Conference Tournament as he broke Nate Schmidt's record of 30 interestingly also set against BV in 2006. His 12 field goals also marked a new record.
Classmate Nick Webber (Peosta) set a new career mark with 24 points, freshman Nate Woeste (Atkins) had 14 points and senior Clay Cook (West Branch) finished with 12.
"It was another great team effort for us with four players in double figures in a well balanced attack," said Peth. "The guys showed a lot of heart tonight!"
