Men's basketball: Blue Jays stumble in loss to Simpson

The Westminster College Blue Jays basketball team couldn't protect a 10-point lead in the second half, dropping its season opener at home to the Simpson (Iowa) College Storm 92-86 on Tuesday night.

Simpson jolted Westminster with a 16-7 run over the final 4 minutes, 8 seconds to pick up its first win of the season. The Storm outscored the Blue Jays 51-39 in the second half.

Westminster carried a 47-41 lead into halftime and went up by 10, 55-45, on senior forward Romo Tabb's layup with 17:00 remaining in the game. The Storm (1-1), though, produced a 10-0 run to pull even on Taylor Filbert's conventional three-point play with 14:34 to play.

That would be the first of nine ties between the two teams before senior forward Stu Hollandsworth lofted in a 3-pointer to give the Blue Jays a 79-76 edge with 4:33 left. Simpson then scored four consecutive points, going in front to stay at 80-79 on Adam Reiter's layup at the 3:38 mark.

The Storm led by four points before junior guard Kobe Wands converted all three free throws after being fouled on a missed 3-pointer, bringing Westminster within 87-86 with 1:04 to go.

Tyler Stumbo buried a 3 on Simpson's ensuing possession with :45 remaining and then made a pair of free throws with :15 to play to seal the win for the Storm.

Hollandsworth - who was 10-of-14 from the field - tallied a game-high 25 points to pace three players in double figures for the Blue Jays, who shot 49 percent (31-of-63) from the field. Kobe Wands chipped in with 21 points and Tabb supplied 18.

Hollandsworth and Tabb both collected five rebounds as Westminster was manhandled on the boards by a 40-24 margin.

Ben Rajewski hit 7-of-9 shots - including 5-of-6 from 3-point range - in finishing with 19 points to steer five players in double figures for Simpson. Conor Riordan was next with 16 points, Stumbo and John Barbee both contributed 13, and Kyle Wagner had 12 as the Storm shot 56 percent (34-of-61) as a team.

The Blue Jays twice trailed by three points early in the game before eventually using an 8-3 run to open up a seven-point advantage. Hollandsworth's layup gave Westminster a 32-25 lead with 5:37 to play in the first half.

Simpson countered with a 7-2 run to close within two points, but the Blue Jays replied with five unanswered points to build their lead back to seven again. Senior guard Carter Wands connected on a layup to put Westminster up 39-32 with 3:13 remaining.

The Blue Jays then widened their lead to 47-39 on Kobe Wands' layup with :12 to go. However, Riordan came right back with a layup with :02 left as the Storm cut the Blue Jays' advantage to six points at the break.

Westminster travels to Decatur, Illinois, to play Millikin University at 7 p.m. Thursday.