Cold shooting dooms Storm in loss to Coe

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – The Simpson men's basketball team held reining conference MVP David Mataloni in check but suffered its worst shooting day of the season in a 66-40 loss Saturday afternoon.

Simpson held Mataloni to two points but JT Vonderhaar had 16 and Seth Light added 15 to lead the Kohawks (11-8, 4-4 Iowa Conference), who completed the season sweep of Simpson. The two teams played in Indianola just five days ago, when Coe won 79-65.

Olu Rotibi scored 10 points and Drew Bentley grabbed seven rebounds for the Storm (6-13, 2-6), who shot a season-low 28.1 percent from the field. Simpson trailed 32-13 at the half and finished the game 0-for-8 from 3-point range.

Simpson narrowed the gap to 12 by going on a 14-7 run to start the second half, highlighted by four points each from Rotibi and AJ Arrington. But after a timeout, Coe went on a run of its own, outscoring Simpson 13-4 over the next 5:30 to take a commanding 52-31 lead.

Simpson returns home to host Buena Vista at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 30. The Beavers (13-5, 5-2) host Buena Vista on Saturday night.