No. 5/6 Storm earn NCAA berth with thrilling championship win

INDIANOLA, Iowa – The Simpson College women's basketball team punched a ticket to the first NCAA DIII Women's Basketball Tournament since 2019 with a thrilling 62-59 win over Wartburg in the American Rivers Conference Tournament Championship on Saturday.

No. 5/6 Simpson (25-1, 15-0 A-R-C) will make its 14th appearance in the NCAA Tournament and first since qualifying nine years in a row from 2005-2013. The A-R-C Tournament Championship is the program's eighth overall.

Anna Wanek tied the game at 48 with a layup and Regan Freland and Cassie Nash followed suit with a trio of layups to put Simpson ahead by six with 6:56 remaining in the game, matching the largest lead of the contest by either team. The 18th-ranked Knights closed the gap to one with 15 seconds left before the nation's best free throw shooter Cameron Kincaid pushed the lead back to three with her eighth and ninth free throws of the game.

After the Knights used their final timeout of the game to advance the ball to halfcourt, Simpson's defense stood firm in the final 13 seconds and Wartburg's 3-point shot at the buzzer was too strong, igniting a big celebration inside Cowles Fieldhouse as the Storm secured their second tournament championship victory in as many years.

Kincaid tied her season- and career-high of 26 points with 61.5 shooting from the floor (8-13) and a perfect 9-for-9 performance at stripe. She also tallied six more rebounds than any other player to tie her career-best of 11 boards, notching her first double-double of the season in the process.

Nash finished with 14 points to extend her streak of games with double figure scoring to nine and pulled within four steals of tying the program's single-season record with a trio of takeaways. The junior now has 87 steals to rank second all-time behind Dana Johnson's season total of 91 during the 2005-06 campaign.

Freland added nine points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals, Wanek was 3-for-3 from the floor for seven points, and Jenna Taylor contributed six points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals. Hattie Rhodes hauled in five rebounds and dished out three assists.

Simpson, which leads the nation in all three shooting categories, had an uncharacteristically poor game behind the arc with just three makes in 13 attempts. Meanwhile, the Knights (21-5, 13-3 A-R-C) exploded for 13 triples in 30 attempts, including seven in the first half which helped them claim a 31-28 lead at the break. The Storm forced Wartburg into a season-high 22 turnovers and converted those miscues into 23 points.

The Storm have now won 22 games in a row and are two victories away from tying the longest win streak in school history of 24 games (1998-99). Simpson's 25 wins are the second-most in a single season behind two 27-win campaigns.

Up Next
Simpson and head coach Brian Niemuth will learn the team's opponent for the first round of the national tournament as well as where the game will take place during the NCAA selection show, which airs at 1:30 p.m. CT on Monday, Feb. 28. Fans can watch the stream live on NCAA.com or check back to SimpsonAthletics.com for updates.