The NAIA No. 3-ranked Sea Lions looked fresh despite a seven-day Christmas Holiday layoff as they defeated Simpson (IA) 84-47. Senior Colleen Planeta scored 31 points and junior Amanda Franz added 21 in the victory.

PLNU briefly fell behind, but only by two points, before taking total control of the no-conference match. A Jil Henteges trey gave the Sea Lions a double-digit lead just before the midway mark of the opening half. PLNU stretched their advantage to 24 points before heading into the break ahead 48-26.

It was more of the same in the second half as the Sea Lion lead swelled to 30 and then 37 points by game's end.

PLNU upped their overall mark to 9-1 and next faces Bridgewater State (MA) Tuesday at 5:00 pm. The Storm fell to 7-2. Simpson fell into the loser's bracket and will meet Capital (OH) Tuesday at 3:00 pm. Washington and Lee (VA) topped Capital, 58-48 in the day's earlier contest and advanced, thanks to an odd, five-team bracket format, to Wednesday's championship game.

Planeta was a rock-solid 13-for-16 from the field and made both three-pointers attempted. The All-American also had eight rebounds, five blocks, four steals and four assists. Franz did most of her damage in the first half and ended the day going 9-of-12 and notching five steals.

Senior guard Liah Ector was dynamite on the defensive end, pulling in eight boards and also dished out five assists. Sophomore forward Kaitlyn Trotter returned to the court for the first time this season and contributed four points and six rebounds.

The Sea Lions outshot the Storm 55 percent to 36 percent and scored 37 points off of 31 Storm turnovers. PLNU's bench tallied 34 points in the paint and also had 12 fast break points.

Simpson was paced by 14 points from Stacie Schutjer. Ali Sokol added 13 points and six rebounds.