Morris, Minn. — A late comeback attempt by the Crown men's basketball team fell short in their Upper Midwest Athletic Conference opener on Wednesday night as the Storm eventually fell by a score of 94-86.  The loss drops the Storm to 4-3 overall and 0-1 in conference play.

Facing a deficit as big as 26 in the second half, Crown trailed by 24 with just 8:07 remaining in the game.  The Storm then went on a 31-11 run in just under seven minutes to cut the lead to four at 88-84 with 1:26 remaining in the contest.

That would be as close as Crown would get, however, as the duo of Noah Grove and CD Douglas knocked down their clutch free throws to cap their big nights offensively and the Cougar win.

Josh Volness had 12 and Tim Wendel seven during Crown's big second half run on their way to matching 22 point efforts.  Austin VanDerHeyden added 19 despite fouling out after playing only 17 minutes. 

The Storm are back in action with a pair of non-conference home games this weekend, taking on Finlandia at 7:30 on Friday night and hosting Luther at 3 p.m. on Saturday.