Simpson holds off late Muskingum rally for fourth straight win

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Timely free throw shooting and long stretches of defense allowed the Simpson men's basketball team to hold off a furious late charge from Muskingum to claim its fourth straight victory, 69-64, at the Ocean Center.

The Storm (9-2, 2-1 A-R-C) now have their second winning streak of four or games this season after starting the year 4-0. The Fighting Muskies (0-10, 0-4 OAC) remain winless on the year, despite fighting to get back into the game.

It was the Fighting Muskies who jumped out quick though, making five of their first six shots, all three-pointers, to take an early 15-5 lead before five minutes had elapsed. Simpson used an early timeout and slowly started to trim the lead, not letting the Fighting Muskies run away with it. While both teams were highly efficient in the first half, each shooting 14-for-26 from the field (53.8%), the Fighting Muskies drilled nine triples. A good sign for the Storm was that despite the barrage of threes, they only trailed by two at the break, 38-36, after a pair of free throws from Andrew Curran.

The Storm turned on the defense to start the second half, only allowing two points in the first 10 minutes of the half, opening up a 52-40 lead. Overall, the Storm started on a patented second-half run, outscoring Muskingum 22-6 over the first 14 minutes of the period. The Storm saw their efficiency from the field drop as well in the second half, but were lethal from the line. A theme to start the season, the Storm have been one of the conference's best free-throw shooting teams, making 22-of-24 attempts for a 91.2 percentage in the game. It was the first time since Jan. 24 at Nebraska Wesleyan that Simpson made at least 90 percent of its free throws.

The Storm were still up double digits with less than three minutes to go before the Fighting Muskies woke up violently, putting together a late rally that had Simpson on its heels. Curran made a couple of free throws, but Muskingum put together a quick 9-2 run, including seven free throws of its own, to trim the Storm advantage to 65-60 with 1:09 to play, forcing a Simpson timeout.
Andrew Gibb was called for an offensive foul on the ensuing possession, which led to Muskingum's only made three-pointer of the second half, cutting the lead to just two points. The clock allowed the Fighting Muskies to play defense straight up instead of foul, but Curran drew a foul anyway and calmly knocked down two free throws to restore the Storm lead to two possessions. Muskingum made a quick layup and fouled Chris Honz, who has notably been a big positive in the overall improvement of the Storm free-throw shooting. Honz made both clutch free throws and grabbed the rebound after a desperation miss from the Fighting Muskies, sending the Storm out undefeated in the Sunshine State.

Curran led all Simpson scorers with 18 points, shooting 50 percent from the field and making six of his seven free throw attempts. Gibb, who has been at the top of the conference in free-throw shooting the entire year, added 13 points, making all six of his free throws. Honz added 13 points of his own and tied for the game-high in rebounds with six.

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The Storm now head into the Christmas break and will return to action after the new year with a road game at Buena Vista, Jan. 4.