The Muskies and Beavers meet for just the second time, and the first time in 30 years. The only prior meeting came Nov. 19, 1994, when Buena Vista topped Lakeland 80-72 in the first round of the UW-Platteville Pioneer Tip-Off Tournament. Oliver Jones finished with 26 points and 16 rebounds for the Muskies, but Buena Vista shot 55.2% and Ryan Forth (23) and Jason Eves (21) combined for 44 points for the Beavers.

Lakeland last time out: Lost at Martin Luther (Minn.) 91-79 Tuesday
The Muskies dropped their fourth straight to start the season, falling to an improved Martin Luther team that boasts one of the country's hottest freshmen early in the season. Adam Loberger scored 36 points for the Knights, two points shy of the 38 points he scored in his season debut against Lakeland's Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference rival Rockford, and MLC shot 48.3% for the game and led most of the way. Lakeland trailed by 13 late in the first half and by 11 early in the second half but rallied within a point on occasions, the last time on a layup by Tim Ward making it 62-61 with 9:06 left. Martin Luther responded with the next 11 points and maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the way. Asanjai Hunter scored 21 points, Ward added 18, Isaiah Hammond finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds and freshman Emmitt Konieczny also added nine points, making three three-pointers.

Buena Vista last time out: Lost at Bethel (Minn.) 93-85 Saturday
The Beavers shot 48.4% and received 28 points and 10 rebounds from Gunner Reed plus 24 points from Zane Neubaum but couldn't catch up with the even hotter-shooting Royals, who hit 50.9% from the floor including 13 of 27 from three-point range. Bethel led 37-25 at halftime and by 17 early in the second half before the teams settled into largely trading baskets the final 10 minutes, with the teams combining for 116 points (including 60 by BVU) in the second half. Carter Sievers also added 17 points and seven rebounds for the Beavers.

Buena Vista finished 13-13 overall last year and 6-10 in the American Rivers Conference, formerly known as the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The school is located in Storm Lake, Iowa, and the Beavers made the seven-hour trip to eastern Wisconsin for a pair of games against NACC opponents, as they'll travel down Highway 23 to take on Marian tomorrow. Though the schools are separated by 454 miles, Lakeland and Buena Vista have some recent history in several sports. The schools completed a home-and-home football series last year, and in softball former Muskies head coach and Iowa native Tammy Utley is the new head softball coach at BVU.