MBB Preview: A-R-C Tournament Semifinals on deck for Storm

INDIANOLA, Iowa -- For the second-straight season, the Simpson men's basketball team will face Nebraska Wesleyan in the American Rivers Conference Tournament Semifinals. The road contest will begin at 7 p.m. in Lincoln, Neb.

The fifth-seeded Storm (14-12) used a well-balanced attack to move past No. 4 Buena Vista on Tuesday by shooting over 60% from the floor and behind the arc. Simpson's 86-70 victory propelled the team into its second-straight semifinals appearance. The top-seeded Prairie Wolves (22-3) earned a first round bye after capturing their fourth-straight league crown.

Fans can access the video stream via the American Rivers application on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV or by visiting SimpsonAthletics.com to find the video link.

GAME 27
Simpson (14-12) at Nebraska Wesleyan (22-3)
Thursday, Feb. 27 | 7 p.m.
Snyder Arena | Lincoln, Neb.
Live Video | Live Stats

NEBRASKA WESLEYAN SERIES NOTES
The Storm snapped a four-game losing skid to the Prairie Wolves last Wednesday, which broke a string of 20-straight conference victories for Nebraska Wesleyan ... for the second-straight season, both teams are meeting in the conference tournament semifinals as both meetings took place in Lincoln ... last year's tournament showdown was a thriller after Simpson came back from a 23-point deficit in the second half to only a two-point gap, but couldn't get over the hump and fell, 85-80 ... this will be the teams' 55th meeting in the series as Nebraska Wesleyan are winners of the last four of five contests between the teams.

RECENT RESULTS
Feb. 19, 2020 — W, 86-59 (Indianola)
Jan. 8, 2020 — L, 86-64 (Lincoln)
Feb. 21, 2019 — L, 85-80 (Lincoln)
Feb. 6, 2019 — L, 102-71 (Lincoln)
Jan. 9, 2019 — L, 96-84 (Indianola)

ABOUT THE PRAIRIE WOLVES
Nebraska Wesleyan moved down to No. 10 in the D3hoops.com Top-25 Poll after last week's loss to Simpson ... the Prairie Wolves have won two-straight conference tournament titles ... the squad is still leading the league in offensive output at 87.9 points per game and is stellar on the other end of the court by allowing just 72.5 points per outing ... Nebraska Wesleyan is hitting on 51.9% of its attempts for first in the league and second in the nation ... Nate Schimonitz is averaging 25.8 ppg for seventh best in the country, while Clay Reimers is third on the glass among conference rebounders.

A-R-C TOURNAMENT
On the opening night of the American Rivers Conference Tournament, the two lower seeds pulled off upsets to keep their seasons alive ... No. 5 Simpson reeled off an 86-70 victory at No. 4 Buena Vista, while No. 6 Wartburg upended No. 3 Loras, 79-74 ... the Storm have a rematch with Nebraska Wesleyan just 10 days after the two squads met in Cowles Fieldhouse, which proved to be in Simpson's favor after grabbing the upset ... the Knights head to No. 2 Coe as the Kohawks look to go 3-0 for the year against the league foe ... the winners of both games will play in the championship bout on Saturday at the higher seed's location.

STORM NOTES
• Simpson in the national rankings:

13th — free throw percentage (77.0%)

• Storm in the national rankings:

Conor Riordan — seventh in free throw percentage (912%) and in assist to turnover ratio (3.0)
Adam Reiter — 13th in field goal percentage (62.9%)

• In the A-R-C, the Storm are second in shooting percentage (49.1%) and third in scoring (84.1), but are seventh in points allowed per contest at 79.8.
• Three starters are scoring in double figures as Conor Riordan is leading the way at 20.1 ppg. Reiter is second at 15.3, and Kyle Wagner follows with an average of 15.2.
• Adam Reiter has been a double-double machine this season and currently has 10 games capturing the feat. Reiter paces the league and had a streak of four-straight contests with a double-double during the year.
• Conor Riordan became the 21st player in program history to reach the 1,000-point mark. He needed just 11 points to reach it when the season started and used his 22 points in the season opener against Bethany Lutheran to join the club. Riordan is currently eighth in program history with 1,511 and needs 27 points to move into seventh.

UP NEXT
The winner of the game will take on the winner of Coe-Wartburg this Saturday for the A-R-C Tournament Championship.