Riordan scores 18, Storm pull away from North Park

CHICAGO, Ill. -- Conor Riordan scored 18 points, and a big second-half run propelled the Simpson men's basketball team to a 75-68 win over host North Park in the first round of the North Park Tournament on Friday.

Ben Rajewski and Kyle Wagner scored 14 points apiece for the Storm (2-1), who won their second game in a row. Simpson will play Hope in the championship game Saturday at 7 p.m.

The Flying Dutchmen beat Greenville 139-129 in the other opening round matchup.

Simpson took the game over with a 16-4 run midway through the second half. North Park led 52-50 when Tyler Stumbo made back-to-back buckets to begin the run. His jumper with 4:02 left gave the Storm a 66-56 lead.

Stumbo scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half to spark the Storm off the bench.

Tangen Vegard scored 15 points and Izaiah Sanders added 14 and 10 rebounds for the Vikings (0-2). North Park shot nearly 49 percent from the field but committed 19 turnovers that turned into 19 Simpson points.

The Vikings trimmed the lead to 66-60 on two Cardell Simmons free throws, but Adam Reiter stopped the drought with layup. He put an exclamation point on the win with a dunk that pushed the lead back to 10 with 1:16 left.