Early run propels Storm to big win over Augsburg

INDIANOLA, Iowa — Sam Amsbaugh scored 18 of his 24 points in the first half, DJ Dafney had a second-straight double-double and the Simpson men's basketball team cruised to a 95-71 win over Augsburg on Friday in the home opener.

Dafney finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds, Sabonis Smith added 12 points and Ryan Skaar knocked down three 3-pointers for the Storm (2-0), who shot nearly 62 percent from the field in a 50-point first half.

"It was a good home opener for us," head coach Brad Bjorkgren said. "Hopefully we are going to get better, but it was a good step in the right direction."

Collin Olmscheid had 26 points and 12 rebounds for the Auggies (0-1), who took the floor for the first time.

Simpson put the pedal to the floor with an 18-0 run in the first half and never looked back. A steal and a three-point play from Smith gave Simpson a 7-5 lead less than three minutes in and the Storm led the rest of the way. Amsbaugh had nine points during the run and scored 12 in the first nine minutes, shooting 8-for-9 from the field in the first half.

The defense was responsible for creating a lot of the offense as the Storm forced 11 turnovers in the first half. Simpson finished with 28 points off 16 Augsburg turnovers.

"A lot of that offense was a direct result of our defense," Bjorkgren said. "I thought the first 12 minutes was as well as we've played defense in a while."

Thirteen different players got into the scoring column, including freshman Connor Riordan, who finished with nine points in just eight minutes despite recovering from illness.

Simpson shot better than 52 percent from the field for the game. Dafney, Smith and Austin Turner all had four assists apiece and the Storm committed just nine turnovers as a team.

Bjorkgren felt his team let up a little bit in the second half of Tuesday's 75-65 win over Monmouth, but that wasn't the case Friday.

"It was important that we put two good halves together," he said. "Tonight was closer and was better than our effort Tuesday night."

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Simpson makes the short trip to Des Moines on Saturday to face Division I Drake in an exhibition contest.