Late rally sinks Storm in season opener

MANKATO, Minn. -- In a game that never saw a lead larger than six points, the Simpson men's basketball team came up short on the road at Bethany Lutheran in a 106-102 loss to begin the season on Friday.

The Storm (0-1) had a slim two-point lead with less than three minutes to play but the Vikings (1-0) went on a 6-0 run to regain the advantage at 102-98 and held on to win by sinking four free throws at the end.

Simpson looked poised to take a lead into halftime as the team was ahead at 44-42 with 15 seconds left on the clock before Bethany Lutheran's Kaden Vaughn drilled a 3-pointer to give the Vikings a 45-44 tilt and the momentum while going into the break.

Near the beginning of the second half, the Storm were in a six-point deficit at 57-51 with less than four minutes played and embarked on a rally to tie the contest at 62-62 with the help of four points from Adam Reiter and a triple from Nick Janssen.

Both teams kept battling by exchanging several leads until it was stalled at 85-85 for nearly a minute before the Vikings sent one through the net to regain the advantage with less than seven minutes to play.

A pair of free throws from Conor Riordan placed the game at 91-90 with Simpson out in front but the hosts took control once again with a layup. Riordan was fouled once more and sank the free throws to make it a 93-92 contest in favor of the Storm.

Ahmed Musa scored three straight points for Simpson and Riordan added a basket to set the game at 98-96 for the Storm's last lead of the game at the 2:13 mark before the Vikings went on their run of three-straight buckets to close out the nonconference showdown with a four-point victory.

Riordan ended with a team-high 22 points and six rebounds, while Reiter chipped in 18 points and eight boards. Kyle Wagner tallied 17 points and six rebounds and Parker Lange added 10 points off the bench in his first action of his career for Simpson.

As a unit, the Storm shot 47.8 from the field and 42.9 percent from behind the arc. At the charity stripe, Simpson hit 30 of 34 attempts for an 88.2 clip

Notes
• This is the second-straight year that both teams faced off to start the season and in both contests each team hit the century mark in points.
• The Storm took care of the ball down the stretch and only turned the ball over four times in the second half and forced eight turnovers on defense during that time.
• Simpson finished with eight assists tonight, that's the lowest in a game since dishing out five against Coe on Jan. 10, 2018.

Up Next
The Storm hold their home opener on Thursday, Nov. 14 as Faith Baptist Bible visits for a 7 p.m. contest inside Cowles Fieldhouse.