Storm unable to slow Beaver offense

STORM LAKE, Iowa – The Simpson College men's basketball team had their second-highest scoring output of the season but couldn't slow the Beavers on the other end of the court as Buena Vista earned a 106-81 win over the Storm on Wednesday.

Tajen Ross was 75.0 percent efficient from the field with four three-point makes in five attempts for a career-high 26 points to lead all scorers. The junior guard has scored 17 or more in all seven of his games while surpassing 20 points in five of those. Ross also added a trio of rebounds and assists as well as a steal.

Chris Honz was one rebound shy of a double-double with 12 points and nine boards, Andrew Curran tallied 12 points, four rebounds and two assists, and Trent Williamson finished with seven points, two rebounds, two takeaways and an assist. Seven other players scored for the Storm.

After falling behind by six, Ross got the Storm (5-17, 2-11 A-R-C) on the board with the team's first five points and back-to-back layups from Curran set the score at 12-11 in favor of the home team. The Beavers (12-11, 9-5 A-R-C) then began to warm up from three-point range as they claimed a 21-15 advantage with 12:20 left in the half.

A layup from Honz followed by a triple from Ross pulled Simpson within one, but the Beavers distanced themselves by 17 with the help of five triples in five minutes including three from lead-scorer Zane Neubaum. The Storm cut the margin to 15 at the 16:44 mark of the second half, but the Beavers wouldn't let them come any closer as they continued to make a statement on offense, leading by as many as 34.

Up Next
The Storm return home for Senior Day and a rematch with league-leading Dubuque on Saturday at 4 p.m.