Second half woes lead to Storm loss against Dubuque

INDIANOLA, Iowa - Lee Piccinelli scored 17 of his game-high 24 points in the second half as Dubuque beat the Simpson men's basketball team 82-67 on Saturday afternoon at Cowles Fieldhouse.

Piccinelli connected on 5 of 6 treys for the Spartans (9-3, 4-0 Iowa Conference), who remain unbeaten in conference play. David Kushnir was a point away from a double-double, going for nine and 15 boards.

Dubuque led by eight early in the second half before Simpson cut the lead to two on a 3-pointer by Drew Bentley (Burlington, Iowa) with 14:28 left. But the Spartans pulled away with a 14-7 run over the next four minutes, highlighted by two 3s from Piccinelli and back-to-back triples by Chris Frazier.

Zack Barragan (Ankeny, Iowa) scored a team-high 16 points on 5 of 9 shooting for the Storm (4-9, 1-4), who dropped their third game in a row. Cornelius Mosby (Chicago, Ill.) and Chad Boston (Des Moines, Iowa) each posted double-doubles, with Mosby scoring 11 points and bringing down 13 boards and Boston tallying 11 and 11.

Simpson turned a seven-point, first half deficit into a five-point, 35-30 lead after a Barragan 3-pointer with 1:32 left in the half. Dubuque tied it up at intermission on a 3 by Lucas Ware and a fastbreak layup by Mitch Michaelis.

The Storm will try to get back on track next Wednesday, Jan. 11 when they travel to Storm Lake to face Buena Vista in an 8 p.m. tipoff. The Beavers (6-7, 2-2) suffered a 73-61 setback at Luther on Saturday.

Notes: With three 3-pointers, Zack Barragan improved his career total to 167, five shy of becoming Simpson's all-time leader ... Jason Parkinson is the school's current leader with 171 from 2003-07 ... Elijah Knox had six assists, his most since the first game of the season ... Simpson is allowing an average of 82.3 points per game in its current three-game skid.