Second-half surge propels Storm to league win

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- The Simpson men's basketball team tallied its third win in a row over Coe on Wednesday as the Storm erased an early seven-point deficit to claim a 71-58 triumph for the team's first American Rivers Conference win of the year.

A quartet of Storm (6-3, 1-1 A-R-C) players scored in double figures to help secure the league victory. Conor Riordan paced the team with 16 points, Kyle Wagner had 15, Adam Reiter chipped in 11 and Ahmed Musa scored 10 while going a perfect 5-for-5. Reiter came one rebound shy of another double-double.

As a unit, Simpson shot 50% from the floor with five makes from the 3-point line, while the Kohawks (3-4, 0-1 A-R-C) shot 36.7% overall and made three triples.

Coe started the contest on a 10-3 run to open things through the first five minutes of action. The Storm would then use the next five minutes of play to regain the advantage at 16-15 as six different players scored on 6 of 8 shooting. Simpson would stretch the lead to four points at 21-17 before the Kohawks returned with a 7-0 spurt to go ahead by three.

As halftime approached, Simpson ended the period on a 9-2 scoring spree, capped off by a Jared Bacon layup at the buzzer to give the Storm a 37-34 lead.

The Kohawks would go out in front at the 19:23 mark of the second half by a score of 38-37, but a Reiter bucket launched the Simpson attack on a 12-2 run to claim the tilt the rest of the way. The Storm would then push it to a 16-point lead at 69-53 with 3:32 left in the game.

Notes
• The team's nine turnovers are the fewest in a game since committing nine on Feb. 19, 2019 in the previous matchup against Coe in the A-R-C Tournament first round.
• At the charity stripe, Simpson shot 90.9% by going 10-for-11. This is the first time the offense clipped the 90% plateau since the last time both teams met as the Storm shot 93.3%.
• The defense altered six shots via block, which is the most since tallying six swats on Dec. 21, 2015 against Monmouth (Ill.).

Up Next
Simpson looks to keep the momentum going on Saturday as Loras comes to Indianola for a 4 p.m. contest inside Cowles Fieldhouse.