Simpson falls in overtime at Nebraska Wesleyan

LINCOLN, Neb. -- An extra five minutes of game action settled Wednesday's affair between the Simpson women's basketball team and Nebraska Wesleyan, but the Storm lost 82-80 on the road.

The Prairie Wolves (12-10, 7-6 American Rivers) sank a shot with just over a second left to go in overtime to give the hosts the late lead. Simpson (17-6, 9-5 A-R-C) had a shot at the buzzer that rattled around the rim and fell out.

Both teams battled to get to the extra period as neither team scored in the last two minutes of regulation. Nebraska Wesleyan had a nice look on a drive to the basket, but Cameron Kincaid said otherwise and sent the ball sailing out of play with a block.

The Storm were down by six in the fourth quarter when Cassie Chubb scored five points and Jenna Taylor added a layup in under two minutes to give the team a one-point lead at 65-64. Claire Johnson added a bucket and the hosts answered with a 3-pointer before Cassie Chubb and Janey Botkins went back-to-back on made triples to give Simpson a 73-67 lead. Nebraska Wesleyan copied the Storm and went back-to-back from behind the tie the game at 73-73 to send it to overtime.

Johnson opened the second half with five-straight points to tie the game at 38-38 after the Prairie Wolves went into halftime with a five-point lead and Botkins displayed her range once more and gave Simpson a 41-38 advantage.

In the first quarter, Nebraska Wesleyan stretched the game to an 18-6 lead before the Storm embarked on a 9-2 run to finish the period.

Both teams shot 12 of 34 from behind the arc during the game with the Storm holding a 47.6 field goal percentage from the floor. The two teams were fairly even in rebounding while the Prairie Wolves had a 48-44 edge. The concern was rebounding on offense and the hosts had 26 compared to Simpson's nine, that difference allowed Nebraska Wesleyan to own a 28-7 tilt in second-chance points.

Jenna Taylor finished with 24 points and Cassie Chubb chipped in 21 points. Johnson scored 13 and Botkins added 12 points. Botkins made four 3-pointers in the game and that pushed her into third-place all-time in program history in made 3-pointers. The guard has 166 makes, surpassing Morgan Mauro who made 163 from 2012-16.

The American Rivers Conference leading scoring, Caitlin Navrati,l tallied 24 points and six rebounds.

GAME NOTES

This is the team's first overtime loss since Dec. 29, 2016 in a 77-69 defeat to Puget Sound … the Storm made 30 buckets tonight which is the most in a loss this season … both teams were equal with 23 bench points.

UP NEXT

The Storm take a week off from competition and host Central on Wednesday, Feb. 13. Tip-off is slated for 6 p.m.