MANKATO, Minn. – The Bethany Lutheran men's basketball team Wednesday night traveled to Simpson College and dropped their first game of the season by a score of 81-64. With the loss the Vikings fall to 2-1 on the year while the Storm move to 2-1.

The Vikings were able to jump out to a 7-3 lead to in the first two minutes of the contest but hit a dry spell for the next eight as they were outscored 19-3 and would trail 22-10 with a little over 10 minutes remaining. Mason Ackley would finish inside to end the drought but Simpson continued to add on, extending their lead to 37-19 with 4:17 to play.

With Bethany needing an offensive spark headed into the half, Jax Madson and Kegan Heiderscheidt found their touch, as Heiderscheidt would hit two jumpshots and Madson would connect twice from long range as the Vikings outscored the Storm 10-1 in the final three minutes to trail 38-29 at the break.

Simpson would get out to a strong start in the second, scoring the first 10 points of the half as they would lead 48-29 just three and a half minutes into the second. Heiderscheidt would connect on a pair of field goals again to spark a run before Madson would hit two more three to cut the deficit to 13 points with just under 12 minutes remaining.

The Storm continued to answer every Bethany run with one of their own as they would quickly push the lead to 20 points at 65-45 with just over eight minutes to play. Justin Schrupp would get his shot going and connect on a pair of three pointers over the next few minutes as the Vikings would cut the deficit to 12 points with seven minutes to go, but that would be as close as they would get as Simpson would hold them at bay late to take the victory.

Schrupp tied for the game-high with 18 points in the contest while Madson was also in double figures with 17. Hunter Nielsen and Ackley each added 10 rebounds for the Vikings with Ackley also adding three assists and a pair of steals.

Bethany will be back in action Saturday when they host Gustavus at 1 p.m.