January 26, 2002

Led by career-highs from junior Mike Leimeister and senior Rod Overmyer, Bluffton College picked up their first-ever win over The College of Mount St. Joseph on Saturday afternoon and at the same time notched their first Heartland Conference win of the season with a 96-90 win in Founders Hall.

Leimeister scored 31 points and Overmyer added 30 as Bluffton overcame the Mount's full-court pressure to score a season-high 96 points.

Leimeister and Overmyer are just the fourth duo to both score 30 or more points in the same game in the history of Bluffton basketball. They are the first to accomplish that feat since John Brown scored 33 points and Clair Recker, father of current Iowa standout Luke Recker, scored 30 points against Urbana University during the 1972-73 season.

Bluffton (8-12, 1-9) took a 44-36 lead at halftime, but there were 25 ties or lead changes in the second half before the Beavers took the lead for good with 2:09 left in the game.

Mount St. Joseph (7-12, 5-5) shot 60% from the floor in the second half, but Bluffton tied a season-high with 29 good free throws (out of 36 attempted for 81%).

Leimeister connected on four 3-pointers, the most of his career, and Overmyer nailed two treys to move into third place on the career 3-pointers list with 162.

A 7-1 MSJ run late in the game gave the Lions a three-point lead at 86-83 with 3:18 to play, but the Beavers outscored the Lions 13-4 the rest of the way to collect their six-point win.

BC junior Derek DeNero added 11 points and dished out a career-high six assists, while senior Kevin Grey chipped in 10 points.

The Mount employed full-court pressure the entire game but Bluffton committed just 13 turnovers, compared to 21 on December 8 when MSJ took a 66-55 win over the Beavers in Cincinnati.

Bluffton will return to action on Saturday, February 2 at Anderson University at 3:00.