On the opening day of their tournaments, Simpson’s basketball squads came away with a split to begin play.

 

The Storm women’s team staved off a fourth-quarter comeback from UW-La Crosse in the opening round of the Loras Holiday Classic in Dubuque with an 85-82 win. Sophomore Regan Freland, who was recently named to the d3hoops.com Team of the Week, had another productive night, scoring 17 points while hauling down five rebounds. However, the story of the night was the sharpshooting of Junior Cassie Nash, who led the team in scoring with 20 points off the bench. Jenna Taylor was second on the team in scoring as she chipped in 18 points and four rebounds. Simpson now improves to 10-1 on the season.

 

The Storm men’s team came out on the wrong side of their opener of the Music City Classic in Gallatin, Tennessee, losing to Carroll 70-62. Simpson did their best to come back after trailing by seven at halftime, but Carroll’s three-point shooting proved to be too much. Andrew Curran led the way for the Storm, with an impressive statline of 14 points, six rebounds, and six assists. Chris Honz had 13 points and six boards to pace the Storm. The loss drops Simpson to 4-6 on the season.

 

Both teams will be back in action today for the second game of their tournaments. The Simpson Men will travel from Gallatin to Nashville to take on Tufts University, which will begin at 1:00 PM. The Storm women will be back in Dubuque to take on Bethany Lutheran, with that game beginning at 2:00 PM.