Simpson falters on the road, loses to Wartburg

WAVERLY, Iowa – Dillon Gretzky scored 18 points but the Simpson men's basketball team ran out of gas in the second half, falling to Wartburg 74-57 on Saturday.

Ryan Skaar scored 12 points on 4 of 8 shooting from 3-point range and DJ Dafney had seven rebounds for the Storm (6-9, 1-3 Iowa Conference), who lost their second straight.

Clay Cook had a 15-point, 15-rebound double-double, and Jordan Cannon scored 20 points and hit five 3s for the Knights (10-5, 3-1). Clifton Brown added 17 points off the bench and Nick Webber had 15.

Simpson won the turnover battle and scored 22 points off those turnovers but couldn't offset a hot-shooting Wartburg squad. The Knights shot 50 percent from the field and went 11-for-22 from 3-point range.

The Storm's last lead came with 5:58 to play in the first half when Vaughn Wilson slammed home a dunk from the baseline to make it 25-24. Wartburg answered with an 11-0 run and took a 35-28 lead into the locker room at halftime.

Gretzky got hot to start the second, scoring seven straight points to get Simpson back into the game. Gretzky hit a 3 then made a pair of free throws to pull Simpson within 39-37 at the 16:30 mark.

Wartburg built a nine-point lead before Skaar cut the lead to 50-47 on a long ball with 10:40 left in the game. Wartburg responded with a Clay Cook layup and back-to-back 3s by Nate Woeste to build an 11-point lead.

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UP NEXT

Simpson hosts Luther next Wednesday, Jan. 21. The Norse (4-11, 0-4) lost to Coe 80-72 on Saturday.