The Simpson Storm women’s and men’s basketball teams did not have enough firepower to keep up with the high flying Knights, the women falling 79-63 and the men 81-74 both heard live on 94.3 KNIA.

The Storm women had a slow start falling behind 24-17 after the first, but dominated the second quarter, outscoring the Knights 24-12 to lead 41-36 at halftime. The third quarter was again back and forth but it was tied at 51 going into the final 10 minutes, but the fourth was all Knights, as they held the Storm to just 12 points and 7/30 shooting the entire second half. Anna Wanek had 15 to lead the team.

The Storm men recovered from a 9-1 early deficit to take a lead as high as five with eight minutes to go in the first half, but were then outscored by 17 the rest of the half to trail 45-33 at the break. There were no answers in the second half either, as Simpson fought to cut into the lead multiple times but never got it lower than eight until the very end. Wartburg shot 0-9 free throws in the game. Easton Darling had 16 points to lead the way.

The Storm women fall to 10-10 and 5-6 in conference play, while the men are 11-8 and 4-7. Both teams take a week off and will travel to Luther on Saturday.