Storm can't hold on against William Penn

INDIANOLA, Iowa - Alec Schwab came off the bench to score 18 points, leading a late charge for William Penn in an 84-74 win over the Simpson men's basketball team on Wednesday night.

Schwab went 7-for-14 from the field, scoring all of his points in the second half as the Statesmen (6-4) came from eight down in the second half to win their sixth in a row.

"It's a little thing here and a little thing there," head coach Charles Zanders said. "Once we figure it out, I really believe that this team is going to be pretty tough."

Schwab scored eight straight points as William Penn outscored Simpson 21-10 in the final 6 minutes, 29 seconds. He converted a 3-point play for a 66-64 lead, then made a 3-pointer and added a fast-break layup as William Penn led the rest of the way.

Marc Wilson and Erik McGee each had double-doubles. Wilson scored 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds while McGee finished with 12 points and 13 boards, including eight on the offensive glass as William Penn outrebounded Simpson 47-32.

Charles Swain scored a season-high 20 points and went 4-for-7 from 3-point range for the Storm (0-6), who led one of NAIA Division II's top teams by eight points with less than 12 minutes left in the game.

Swain, the team's leading scorer from a year ago, reached double figures for the first time since scoring 17 in the season opener.

"He was going through a slump," Zanders said. "We had a brief meeting yesterday and came to an understanding as to what the expectation is from him. He took it to heart and ran with it."

Trailing by nine early in the game, Simpson went on a run to close the first half with a 39-38 lead. Back-to-back 3s by Swain gave Simpson a 39-30 lead with 3:26 to go in the first.

Simpson kept the lead until Schwab made consecutive 3s to give William Penn a 44-43 edge with 17:54 left. But Simpson answered with a 16-7 run to go up 59-51 with 11:29 left in the game.

From that point on it was all William Penn, closing the game by outscoring Simpson 33-15 over the final 11 minutes, 19 seconds.

 "We have to keep working," Zanders said. "I really like this team and good things are going to happen, we just have to get that first win."

Austin Hennings scored 13 points, Chad Gutschenritter had 12 and five assists and Leif Olson scored a season-high 10 off the bench for the Storm.

Simpson struggled from the free throw line, going just 11 of 21.

The Storm are off until Dec. 4 when they travel to AIB.