Indianola, Iowa. – The Gustavus Adolphus men’s basketball team opened its season with a 66-58 victory over Simpson College on Saturday evening at Cowles Fieldhouse. Gustavus found itself in a small hole early, but managed to climb out and build a 16-point (40-24) halftime lead and would never look back on its way to the win. Chad Poppen (Jr., St. Peter, Minn.) poured in 13 points and grabbed seven boards to pace the Gusties, who move to 1-0 on the season, while the Storm fall to 0-1.
A pair of runs in the first half aided Gustavus in opening up its halftime lead. A Chris Narum (Jr., Eagan, Minn.) three-pointer 6:55 into the game sparked a 10-2 run that was capped off by a Martin Fedderson (Sr., Winona, Minn.) layup to give the Gusties an 18-12 lead with 9:57 remaining in the opening half.
Less than a minute later, a jumper by junior forward Brody Ziegler (Mankato, Minn.) ignited a 14-4 run that would put Gustavus in front 32-18 with 3:11 remaining in the first. From there, the Gusties would hold on to take the 40-24 lead to the break.
Following halftime, Simpson slowly but surely began to chip away at the Gustavus lead, but did not cut the lead below 10 until the 11:43 mark in the second half. Then, a Dillon Gretzky three-pointer keyed a 7-0 Simpson run that would cut the Gustie lead to 46-45 with 7:57 remaining in the game. For the next few minutes, Gustavus and Simpson went back and forth, with the Storm even grabbing a one point advantage with 6:20 to play. But Gustavus would hold its own and go on a 10-1 run that put them back in front and the visitors led 59-50 with 3:08 remaining, a lead that would prove to hold for the remainder of the game, and Gustavus eventually secured the 66-58 victory.
Gustavus shot just under 35 percent from the floor compared with Simpson’s 44.2 percent, however, the Gusties out rebounded the Storm 46-34 and also made the most of their free-throws, which proved to be the difference in the game. Gustavus shot 18-of-22 (81.8 percent) from the charity stripe, while Simpson shot just 8-of-18 (44.4 percent) on free throws.
Isaac Tapp (Sr., Stewartville, Minn.) scored 14 points and added three assists for Gustavus, while Peter Kruize (So., St. Peter, Minn.) came off the bench to net 12 points and pull down three rebounds. Gary Cooper (Jr., Detroit, Mich.) also added seven points and grabbed nine boards.
The Gusties will be back in action on Sunday, as they finish their Iowa road trip with a game against Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa. at 2 p.m.