One Simpson Storm basketball squad moves on to the second round of the American Rivers Conference tournament, while the other has their season come to close in heartbreak fashion as the Storm men took down Buena Vista 86-70 and the Storm women fell to Coe in overtime 70-67. The Simpson men’s squad bullied the Beavers all throughout the first half, building a 46-31 lead at the halftime break then playing even in the second half to get the first round upset. Conor Riordan led the way with 22 points, Kyle Wagner had 21, and Collin Lister scored 19. The Storm improve to 14-12 overall and move on to play first-seed Nebraska Wesleyan tomorrow, just a week after taking out the previous #6 team in the country in blowout fashion.

The Storm women had a fight with the Kohawks all game long, with neither team gaining much of an advantage with a 27-25 score after the first 20 minutes. The Storm took a brief lead of 48-45 after outscoring the Kohawks in the third quarter 23-18, but Coe quickly came back to tie the score after a back and forth final period, and had a chance to win the game with a layup at the buzzer but it fell short to force overtime. A Coe three-point basket with 1:16 remaining put them up 68-65, and would hold on to the lead from there. The Storm’s season comes to close with an 18-8 record, and graduate seven seniors.