'Balanced' Simpson men hold off Wartburg

INDIANOLA - Zack Barragan and Stefon Brown led five players in double figures and Simpson held off a second-half rally in an 84-71 win against Wartburg on Wednesday night at Cowles Fieldhouse.

The Storm (8-9, 5-3 IIAC) led by as much as 17 in the second half, but allowed Wartburg within a bucket with four minutes to play. A Thomas Perkins 3-pointer made the score 67-65 with 4:03 left, prompting a Simpson timeout.

Elijah Knox stuck a 3-pointer from the left wing out of the timeout, sparking a 7-0 run that put Simpson ahead for good. From that point, Simpson outscored Wartburg 17-6.

Jordan Sathoff scored a game-high 34 points and pulled down 14 rebounds to lead the Knights (6-10, 1-7 IIAC), who had won six of the last seven in the series.

With his team on the ropes and in danger of losing a double-digit lead, head coach Charles Zanders looked for someone to step up.

"I challenged them to make a play," Zanders said. "They worked so hard to get ahead in the game, it would have been a shame not to do the little things necessary to finish it out. I told them we would determine who wins and who loses, not them."

Knox, who also had five steals, was only a piece of the equation.

Barragan and Brown scored 15 points each, Knox added 14 and John Cord scored 13. Cornelius Mosby led Simpson off the bench with 11 points and seven rebounds.

"I love that we are balanced," Zanders said. "It makes it difficult for teams to scout us and it allows everyone to get involved."

Simpson's eight wins marks the most by a Storm team since they went 18-9 in 2006-07.

The deep ball came in handy for Simpson on the night, connecting on 11 triples. Barragan went 3-for-7 and the 6-8, 220-pound Mosby went 2-for-2.

The Storm led by 12 at halftime, but didn't have an answer for Sathoff, who scored 24 of his 34 in the second half.

Simpson looks to even its record at .500 when it hosts league-leading Luther on Saturday afternoon in a 4 p.m. tipoff at Cowles Fieldhouse. Simpson lost to Luther 57-45 last Saturday in Decorah. Live stats and live video can be viewed at http://livestats.prestosports.com/simpson/.