Men's Basketball Drops Its Season Opener Against Simpson

INDIANOLA, Iowa.—The Fontbonne University men's basketball team opened its 2022-23 season with a tough 73-69 loss against Simpson.

In the first half, the Griffins tied it up at 11-11 on Will Suellentrop's layup at the 14:23 mark. Later, the Griffins stretched its lead out to 23-19 with just over seven minutes remaining on Suellentrop's bucket.

However, the Storm garnered a 29-27 lead with 1:35 left on the clock on Chris Honz's layup and held on from there leading by two at the break.

Fontbonne shot 30.6 percent from the field in the first led by Suellentrop with nine points. Drew Cromer went 3-of-4 from the field for seven points.

It was back-and-forth play in the second half, but Caden Clark's layup with 14:30 left put Fontbonne on top, 46-45. Fontbonne stretched its lead out to 59-50 at the 8:01 mark on Cheikh Thiam's layup.

Over the next three minutes and change, the Storm went on a 12-3 run tying it up on Andrew Curran's 3-pointer. The Griffins regained the lead on the ensuing possession with Elijah Rice knocking in his jumper. Simpson, though closed out regulation on a 9-5 run going on for the four-point win 

Game Notes

• Fontbonne finished shooting 41.4 percent from the field.
• Simpson shot 36.1 percent from the floor.
• The Storm hit 73.1 percent of its shots from the free throw line compared to Fontbonne going 8-of-15 (53.3 percent).
• Fontbonne held a 47-41 advantage on the glass.
• The Griffins dominated in the paint having a 44-20 advantage.
• Caden Clark needs 28 points to become the 16^th player in program history to reach 1,000 career points.

Top Griffins

Caden Clark: 27 points, 10-of-19 shooting, seven rebounds. Scored 23 in the second half.

Will Suellentrop: 14 points, 6-of-11 shooting, seven rebounds

Elijah Rice: eight points, six rebounds

Cheikh Thiam: eight rebounds

Up Next

The Griffins close out its trip to Iowa tomorrow afternoon when they'll take on Buena Vista at 1 p.m.

Make sure to follow men's basketball on all its social media accounts: Twitter (@FBUBasketball), Instagram (@fbubasketball) and Facebook (/FontbonneUGriffins).