Kohawks hold off Storm in second half

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - Coe denied the Simpson men's basketball team a series sweep after holding off the Storm in the second half by a score of 87-76, Saturday, at Kohawk Arena.

The loss drops the Storm to 4-5 in American Rivers Conference play after a 4-1 start. The Kohawks (11-7, 5-4 A-R-C) jump the Storm in the conference standings as a result of the game.

It was a frantic start for both teams, with 25 combined points in the first five minutes after Andrew Gibb nailed a triple to put the Storm up 13-12. Coe answered with a mini run to go up by as much as five, but Andrew Curran nailed a three-pointer of his own to bring the Storm back within one, 23-22.

From there, Coe went on a 7-0 run in a minute, forcing a Simpson timeout. Simpson brought it back within six, but the Kohawks closed the half on a 20-9 run after Curran's three-pointer to lead 43-31 at halftime.

Coe threatened to run away with it after going up 13 early in the second half after a triple from Bennett Sherry, but Simpson went on a 7-0 run quickly after to bring it back to six. Unfortunately, a theme for the Storm in the past couple of games came to the forefront, as after every run to get closer, there was a clutch answer, this time coming from the conference leader in three-pointers in Cael Schmitt. Schmitt, who had a game-high 26 points and six three-pointers, was a thorn in the side for the Storm.

The Storm were down by a margin of five to nine points over a span of nearly six minutes, but Schmitt and the Kohawks came up with an answer each time. Curran cut it to seven again with less than eight minutes to go, but the Storm did not score for over four minutes, allowing the Kohawks to ice the game with a 7-0 run, leading 83-69 with 3:30 to go. Darling drove in for a layup to cut it to nine with 1:52 to go, but the Kohawks were able to hold on after a couple more defensive stops.

Curran led the Storm with 17 points with three made three-pointers. Gibb, who kept his impressive free-throw streak alive, added 16 points and a team-high nine rebounds. Chris Honz chipped in 13 points and eight rebounds.

The Storm shot well from the field at a 49.2 percent clip and a 92.3 percent mark from the free-throw line, but only shot 31.6 percent from the three-point line. The Kohawks made 50.8 percent of their shots from the field and only committed five turnovers, compared to 12 from Simpson.

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Simpson looks to get back in the win column by traveling to Loras next Wednesday.