Feb. 23, 2023 – Consistent shooting and timely defense kept the 19^th-ranked Loras College women's basketball team alive in the American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) Tournament on Thursday night as the Duhawks pulled away from Simpson College for an 88-54 victory in the tournament semifinals.

The second-seeded Duhawks (22-4) and third-seeded Storm (16-11) both had their moments on defense on Thursday night, but Loras was simply too much to handle across the board as 12 three-pointers helped open things up for a 34-point Loras victory.

Loras will play at top-seeded and 24^th-ranked Wartburg College on Saturday, Feb. 25 for the A-R-C Tournament title. The fourth-seeded Duhawk men's basketball team will also play host to sixth-seeded Coe College on that day, making Loras the only school in the A-R-C to have two shots at a basketball tournament title this weekend.

While this 34-point margin of victory may suggest that the Duhawks had it easy on Thursday, that wasn't always the case as Simpson kept things interesting on a couple of occasions thanks to its defense. Loras turned the ball over 22 times in this game compared to just 13 turnovers for the Storm, and fastbreak points kept the Storm in the game.

Simpson's Cassie Nash led the team and tied for the game high with 19 points, with all 19 coming almost exclusively at the rim. A good portion of that was in the fastbreak as the Storm has 16 points in transition and 16 points off turnovers in the game.

While the Duhawks led by double digits for the entire second quarter, they never quite did enough to pull away, and the Storm had the lead down to just 10 points midway through the third quarter. That's when the energy began to shift for the Duhawks as they connected on a barrage of three-pointers to end the quarter and send the lead up to 20.

Loras outscored Simpson 15-5 in the final five minutes of the third quarter with all 15 points being accounted for by three-pointers. Senior forward Madison Haslow accounted for three of those buckets to provide a huge spark for her team heading into the fourth quarter.

With the momentum back on their side, it was smooth sailing for the Duhawks as they played faster than the Storm in the final 10 minutes to run away with the win.

Haslow's 19 points tied her for the team- and game-high in points and set a new season-high for the senior. She finished 5-for-7 from three-point range and 7-for-11 from the field overall as she also pulled down eight boards and recorded two blocks.

Senior guard Cierra Bachmann helped Haslow pile on the points as she finished with 19 of her own with three three-pointers. Graduate guard Hannah Thiele added two triples as sophomore guard Daniella Jarrell and junior guard Megan Murray each added one.

Loras dominated a pair of team stats that really helped it shut down any semblance of a comeback attempt for Simpson. The Duhawks outrebounded the Storm 54-20 and blocked nine shots as both numbers either set or tie a season-high. Led by Jarrell with four, Loras' nine blocks are just two shy of the program record of 11 set back in 2004.

Start time on Saturday, Feb. 25 at Wartburg is still to be finalized. The teams split the regular season series at one game apiece with the home team winning both matchups.  While it's likely that both teams could receive an at-large bid, Saturday's A-R-C Tournament Champion will receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Tournament, while the other will have to wait until Monday's selection show to find out for sure.