STORM LAKE, Iowa -- The No. 6 seeded Wartburg College men's basketball team (17-9 overall) defeated No. 3 Buena Vista (14-12) on Tuesday 74-68 in the first round of Iowa Conference tournament play. The win advances the Knights to the second round of the IIAC tournament to face No. 2 Loras.



The game began in Buena Vista's favor, as they took a nine-point lead in the first seven minutes of play, 15-6. The Knights tied it up 18-18 with 9:55 remaining in the half and ended up by four at the halftime buzzer 36-32. The Beavers took a 39-38 lead in the second half at the 18:06 mark, but the Orange and Black did not trail again in the contest. Wartburg increased their leading margin to 14 points with 11:51 to play and held their opponent to at least a four point deficit for the rest of the game.

The Knights scored 13 three-point shots during the victory, which broke the program's previous record of 11 three-pointers made in the IIAC tournament in both 2004 and 2016. The team scored six three-pointers in the first half and seven in the second. Five Wartburg players contributed to the record-breaking performance. Junior Sawyer Herman (Monticello) connected for four shots from behind the arc, sophomore Cam Kickbush (Reinbeck) was three for three, and senior Jordan Cannon (Bolingbrook, Ill.), senior Nick Webber (Peosta), and junior Nate Woeste (Atkins) all recorded two three-pointers.

Wartburg led Buena Vista in all three shooting percentages including field goals (.480 to .411), three-point shots (.565 to .267) and free throws (.765 to .538).

Cannon led the offense for the Knights, scoring 17 points. His offensive contribution pushed him into second place of all-time career scoring for the Knights. Cannon has now scored 1,524 in his career, which surpasses Jordan Sathoff's 1,519 points scored from 2008-12. Herman recorded 13 points, sophomore Jaran Sabus, (Urbandale) had 11 and Woeste tallied 10. Sabus had a game-high five assists and a team-high five rebounds.

Round two between Wartburg and Loras will take place on Thursday at 7 p.m. in Dubuque.