The Simpson basketball teams closed out the Cruzin Classic in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Friday splitting a pair of matchups.

Despite only shooting 30% from the floor, the Storm women had no trouble against Curry winning 68-51. Simpson opened up a 21-11 lead after the first and 40-21 at the break before holding serve in the final 20 minutes. The bench was a big reason for the success, outscoring Curry 24-2 in that department. Janey Botkins led the way with 15 points and Jenna Taylor had 10 points and 15 boards. Simpson improves to 8-2 and face off with Elmhurst on Friday at the Loras Classic.

The Storm men couldn’t come up with enough stops in an 85-76 defeat to New England College. The Storm trailed 42-39 at the break but had a lead with six minutes left in the ball game when a 7-0 Pilgrim run was too much to come back from. Like the women’s game, bench points proved to be the difference, unfortunately for the Storm being on the wrong end of a 32-9 tally. Nick Janssen had a career day with 24 points including 22 of those coming in the second half.

The Storm drop to 8-3 and will travel to division II – Northwest Missouri State in an exhibition game next Sunday.