Strong start nets Storm A-R-C victory

INDIANOLA, Iowa -- The Simpson men's basketball team sprinted out to an 18-2 lead in the first five minutes of action on Wednesday to run away with an 88-57 victory over Luther.

During the opening spurt, six different players scored for the Storm (10-9, 4-6 A-R-C) to grab the hefty lead. The Norse (6-13, 4-6 A-R-C) responded with a 14-4 spree to bring the game within striking distance at six points.

The American Rivers Conference affair sat at 31-25 before Conor Riordan, Kyle Wagner and Jared Bacon tallied baskets to extend the team's advantage back to double figures at 12 points. Luther closed the gap to 37-30 before Simpson unleashed an 8-0 run to send the contest into intermission as Riordan scored all eight with the aid of two triples.

Riordan finished the half with 18 of his 25 points on 8 of 9 shooting from the floor. Overall, the senior connected on 11 of his 13 attempts to score his fifth 20-plus point performance in six outings to move into 10th place in the program's career points list with 1,370.

The offense started the second half the same way it started the game, with a double-digit run. The Storm rushed out to an 11-2 scoring spree to widen the margin to 56-32. It took the Norse until the 11:28 mark to record their 10th point in the half to set the game at 67-40.

An Andrew Curran basket gave Simpson its largest lead of the game of 33 points at 81-58 with 3:40 to go. The Storm relied on their bench down the stretch as 23 of their 28 bench points were scored in the second frame.

Simpson closed the game by shooting 57.6% from the floor and 50% from deep, while the defense held the visitors to a 29.6% shooting clip.

Adam Reiter ended with 14 points, and Wagner tallied 12 and produced nine rebounds to miss out on his first double-double this season. Of the 16 guys that saw action tonight, 11 netted a point and all but three attempted a shot.

By splitting the season series with Luther, Simpson is now in sixth place in the A-R-C standings with six games to go.

Up Next
Loras plays host this weekend as the Storm visit for a 4 p.m. contest on Saturday. The Duhawks won 82-78 in the previous game between the squads on Dec. 7, 2019.