Prairie Wolves snap Storm winning streak

INDIANOLA, Iowa - The Simpson College men's basketball team cut the deficit to one with just over eight minutes to play, but Nebraska Wesleyan held on to snap the Storm's six-game winning streak, 80-69.

The story of the game came down to rebounding and turnovers for the Storm (11-3, 4-2 A-R-C). Despite outshooting the Prairie Wolves (9-6, 4-2 A-R-C), the Storm were outrebounded 37-24, with the Prairie Wolves grabbing 14 on the offensive glass. The Storm were also forced into 16 turnovers, a season-high. Both of these led to the Prairie Wolves recording 13 more shot attempts, with the volume of shots being too much for the Storm to overcome.

The game started well for the Storm, as Easton Darling picked up where he left off last week, scoring seven early points as the Storm grabbed a 17-11 lead. However, the Prairie Wolves embarked on a 21-3 run over the next six minutes, which came with star man Peter Lash on the bench for most of that after picking up his second foul. Jack Groeteke came off the bench and scored all 12 of his points in the first half.

The Storm kept fighting, trimming the lead to single digits. Andrew Gibb poured in seven points in a couple minutes to trim the lead to 41-37 shortly before halftime, but Groeteke nailed a long three-pointer in response to send the Prairie Wolves to a seven point lead at halftime.

The Prairie Wolves threatened to run away with it to start the second half, but Simpson once again closed the gap to single digits and a Caden Rehmeier three cut the lead to 56-51. Down 61-53 a couple minutes later, Rehmeier nailed another three to spark a 7-0 run that cut the lead to 61-60. Despite a chance to take the lead after a Nebraska Wesleyan miss, that was as close as the Storm came, with an energized Lash scoring 20 of his game-high 25 points in the second half.

Simpson stayed within seven to nine points for most of the remaining time, but could not get back down to one possession, as Lash knocked in a few free throws before the clock ran out, ending the Storm's six-game winning streak.

Darling led the Storm with 19 points, making eight of his 14 attempts from the field. Gibb recorded 14 points and a team-high eight rebounds, while Buck Eagleburger added a career-high 12 points. Andrew Curran also dished out 10 assists, becoming the first Storm player to record 10 assists in a game since Kyle Wagner had 11 against Greenville in November 2019.

The Storm shot above their season average, hitting a 47.1 percent clip, but the rebounding and turnovers led to less shot attempts than their opponent. The Storm made 77.8 percent of their free throws, as the team has now made above 70 percent of their shots from the foul line in every game this season.

Up Next

The Storm will finish their homestand with a contest against Dubuque, Saturday, at 4 p.m.