Simpson women earn 13th conference title

INDIANOLA, Iowa -- Simpson College women's basketball capped off a perfect season on Saturday with an American Rivers Conference Championship, the 13th in program history by defeating Coe, 89-85, in overtime.

The Storm completed a perfect record of 12-0 and went 8-0 against league foes, the first time since 1999 that head coach Brian Niemuth has gone without a blemish during league play. This is the program's first league title since the 2012-13 season.

Cassie Nash was the driving force behind Simpson's offense tonight by scoring a career-high 31 points, with 14 coming at the charity stripe. Jenna Taylor tallied 23 points and 11 rebounds to cap off her career with another double-double. Although plagued by foul trouble most of the game in only 16 minutes of work, Cameron Kincaid had 10 points, while Anna Wanek had 10 off the bench.

For the Kohawks (9-4), Jackie and Jamie Feldt combined for 53 points and 20 rebounds to pace the squad.

Simpson looked poised to run away with the crown after capturing a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter on the back of a 19-0 run to start the frame. The Storm offense went cold over the next five minutes of play for Coe to take advantage with a 17-3 run to knot the game at 76-76 with 12 seconds left with a triple.

On the ensuing position, Regan Freland was fouled and placed at the line, but only made one of her free throw attempts to grab the lead. The Kohawks took the ball the length of the court and found a wide-open Molly Buck in the corner for a 3-pointer to go ahead 79-77, who made the game-tying shot just moments earlier. After a timeout, Kincaid was fouled on a drive to the hoop and nailed both of her free throws with no time left, just like she did in the Wartburg contest weeks earlier to push the game into overtime.

Simpson scored five-quick points in the extra stanza and held the lead the rest of the way to defeat Coe for a third time this season and avenge last year's A-R-C Tournament Semifinals' loss to the Kohawks.

The game started out slow for the Storm by only shooting 26.3% from the field, but only found themselves down by three at 16-13. The second period was a different story as the offense connected on 53.3% of its attempts, compared to the Kohawks' 35.3% clip. Nash had 11 points in the second to help Simpson hold a 35-30 tilt at the break.

Coe tallied a 12-2 spurt in the third to outscore the Storm 29-19 to hold a five-point margin headed into the fourth. Nash poured in 10 points in the fourth to help Simpson stay in the contest and reach the overtime period.

The Storm shot 75% at the free throw during the contest with 27 makes, their most all season, while the Kohawks only made 19 of theiir 32 attempts.

Due to a Covid-altered regular season schedule that employed an eight-game single round-robin, in place of the typical 16-game double round-robin, the coaches and Athletic Directors approved recognizing a single Conference Champion in lieu of a regular season and tournament champion. With this, the coaches and Athletic Directors approved, for the first time, an all-comers tournament, which usually has six participants, that would determine the 2021 Conference Champion.