DECORAH - Dane Larson scored 18 points, John Androus recorded a double-double and Luther beat Simpson 78-68 in the semifinal round of the Iowa Conference Tournament on Thursday night.

Androus scored 11 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for the top-seeded Norse (17-8), who advance to the IIAC Tournament Championship for the first time in school history. They will meet No. 3 seed Dubuque, which beat Coe 55-51.

Tim Merritt added 12 points and Tyler Wedemeier and Nnamdi Okolue 10 apiece as five Luther players reached double figures.

JJ Vanderheiden scored 17 points for the fourth-seeded Storm (12-15), who saw their season come to a close. Cornelius Mosby finished with 16 points and nine rebounds, Elijah Knox scored 13 and John Cord added nine boards.

Simpson's only lead in the game came less than 3 minutes in when a Vanderheiden jumper made the score 4-2. Wedemeier tied the game before Larson's jumper with 16:21 to go in the first half put Luther ahead 6-4. The Norse led the rest of the way.

Luther led 40-30 at the break and pulled away with a 25-10 run in the first 7 minutes, 30 seconds of the second half.

A David Fouch jumper sparked a 21-8 run over the final 8 minutes, but it was too little, too late for the Storm. Mosby accounted for 10 points during the run and scored 14 in the final 10 minutes of the game.

Simpson's 12 wins in 2010-11 doubled its win total from a year ago.