INDIANOLA, Iowa – University of Dubuque, who is regionally ranked, defeated Simpson College (90-68) Saturday, February 12 to claim the American Rivers Conference Men’s Basketball title and moved to 17-6 on the season and 12-2 in the league.
It was Simpson’s
Deontei Johnson who put the first points on the board with a layup at the 19:29 mark in this afternoon’s game. The Storm took the lead and held onto it for the first 12 minutes, and it would be senior forward
Peter Ragen’s layup that would give the Spartans their first lead since the first minute of the game. Dubuque’s offense was led by Ragen in the first half, who scored 11 points. The forward also collected four steals and three rebounds. Dubuque would hold onto the lead and end the first half 44-38.
In the second half, the Storm pushed to close the gap with a layup and a free throw from
Ross Tajen, but the Spartans continued to push forward. Ragen scored the first points of the half for the Spartans which was followed by an assist to junior guard
Brock Simon, bringing the score to 46-41
. Dubuque continued to build on their lead, with their largest lead being 26 (81-56) with 6:05 left in the second half. Simon led Dubuque with 11 points in the second half.
Ragen (18 points) and Simon (15 points) combined for 33 of Dubuque’s 90 points. As a team, the Spartans shot 51.5 percent on the field, 46.7 percent from behind the arc, and 66.7 percent from the line. With this afternoon’s win, the Spartans have won the conference title outright and have secured the No.1 seed in the American Rivers Conference Tournament.
The Spartan’s are collecting their second consecutive conference title after claiming the 2021 title. In 2021, due to a Covid-altered regular season schedule that employed an eight-game single round-robin, in place of the typical 16-game double round-robin, the coaches and Athletic Directors approved recognizing a single Conference Champion in lieu of a regular season and tournament champion. With this, the coaches and Athletic Directors approved, for the first time, an all-comers tournament, which usually has six participants, that determined the 2021 Conference Champion.
