Storm re-enter Top-10, Freland named to D3hoops.com Team of the Week
INDIANOLA, Iowa – The Simpson College women's basketball team re-entered the top-10 in both the Women's Basketball Coaches Association and D3hoops.com polls and Regan Freland landed a spot on the D3hoops.com Team of the Week for the period ending Dec. 12.
After sitting at No. 12 last week, Simpson moved up to No. 10 in both polls after taking down then-No. 5 Wartburg in its only contest of the week. The Storm are 7-1 on the year and have won 13-straight regular season games over conference opponents. Overall, Simpson has been triumphant in 19 of its last 20 contests with the only loss being a two-point deficit.
Freland, who earned the title of American Rivers Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Week a day ago, was named to the D3hoops.com Team of the Week, which recognizes the top performance at each of the five positions from the previous week. She is the first Simpson player to land on the team since Ashley Katch in Feb. 2008.
A sophomore guard from Prairie City, Iowa, Freland paved the way for Simpson in its home victory over the Knights. She was one of five to hit double figure scoring and finished the game with a career-high 23 points fueled by five three-pointers. Cassie Nash (15), Kia Rasmussen (15), Anna Wanek (15) and Cameron Kincaid (11) also hit double-digit scoring, while Jenna Taylor (11) and Hattie Rhodes (7) led the rebounding effort.
As a unit, Simpson shot 50.7 percent from the floor and had a season-high 15 triples against the Knights. The Storm shared the ball well during the contest with 32 assists on 35 made shots, the most since tallying 32 against Mount Mary in November 2014. Kincaid led the way with a career-high nine helpers and Rasmussen added a season-high seven.
Simpson leads all NCAA Division III teams in free throw percentage (82.2), ranks second in assists per game (20.0), and has the fourth-highest field goal percentage (47.7) and three-point percentage (38.5).
The Storm are next in action at the Daytona Beach Shootout on Dec. 20-21. Simpson will face Alfred and Westminster while in the Sunshine State.
The weekly D3hoops.com poll is voted on by a panel of 25 coaches, Sports Information Directors and media members from across the country, while the WBCA poll is decided by a committee of 10 head coaches representing each DIII region. In each poll, total points are awarded based on 25 points for first place through one point for 25th.
