Women's basketball hosts Simpson Thanksgiving Classic

INDIANOLA, Iowa -- The Simpson women's basketball team will host the Simpson Thanksgiving Classic this Friday and Saturday inside Cowles Fieldhouse.

In addition to the Storm, the Buena Vista Beavers, Concordia-Moorhead Cobbers and Calvin Knights will be attending the event. Buena Vista and Calvin start competition at 5 p.m. on Friday, with Simpson and Concordia-Moorhead following at 7 p.m. Play starts again at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Along with Brian Niemuth being in his 33rd-year at the helm for the Storm, the Thanksgiving Classic will see three first-year head coaches with their respective programs. Kim Wagers will guide the Cobbers, Mark Christner with the Knights and David Wells for the Beavers.

To view the Simpson Thanksgiving Classic homepage, click here.

ABOUT THE STORM: Simpson enters the weekend with a 2-1 record after claiming a 101-59 victory in the American Rivers Conference opener on Tuesday against Dubuque ... through the first three contests of the year, the Storm are averaging 84.3 points per game for second in the conference ... the offense is shooting 48.6% from the floor and 43.2% from 3 to lead the league in both categories ... the offense has been well rounded so far as four players are scoring in double figures ... sophomore Kia Rasmussen is scoring 15.7 points per game after a 20-point outburst against the Spartans ... senior Cassie Chubb (12.3), junior Cameron Kincaid (11.3) and freshman Cassie Nash (10.7) are helping the cause.

ABOUT THE BEAVERS: Buena Vista has started the season with a 1-4 mark with the lone victory coming in a 64-63 overtime win over Nebraska Christian College ... the team's A-R-C opener was postponed from last night due to inclement weather in Storm Lake, Iowa ... on the offensive attack, the Beavers are scoring 59.6 points a game and are allowing 69.2 points on the other end of the court ... Destiny Einerwood is the top scorer with 16.4 points per outing ... Erin Gerke is Einerwood's counterpart on the offensive attack as she's scoring 12.8 points a contest.

ABOUT THE COBBERS: After grabbing a win in the season opener, Concordia-Moorhead have lost its last three games to begin the year at 1-3 ... the Cobbers are allowing opponents to score 65.8 points a game and are scoring 63.3 ... three players are averaging over 10 points as Autumn Thompson is first with 16.0 points a game ... Mary Sem follows with 12.8 and Emily Beseman has 11.5.

ABOUT THE KNIGHTS: Calvin has won the last two games after starting the year by splitting its first four games for a 4-2 record ... the offense is tallying 60 points per game and allowing 57.3 points ... Gabby Timmer is top of the scoring with an average of 18.2 and on the glass with 10.3 rebounds ... Timmer scored 460 points last season as a freshman and is on pace to do so again.