MERCED, Calif. - Simpson U men's hoops picked up its 10th win in the Cal Pac this season with an overtime win over Merced, 62-54.
The Red Hawks 10-3 conference record is the program's best since the 2014 season. SU also got revenger with the win, after falling to Merced earlier this season at home.
JT Branch,
Anthony Rice, and
Gary Mims all finished in double figures with Branch leading the way with 16 points and eight rebounds. Mims tallied his eight double-double of the season by adding five steals to along with 11 rebounds and 13 points. Rice also tallied 12 points for Simpson.
Dylan Banks impressively played all 45 minutes of action in the conference finale adding nine points and six rebounds.
This win is all the more impressive because of Simpson's struggle shooting the basketball at just 32 percent for the game and only connecting on two three-pointers in 11 attempts.
The Red Hawks relied on their defensive presence to lockdown the Bobcats, holding Merced to 32 percent from the field as well. SU pressure on defense led to 15 Bobcat turnovers and resulted in 19 points off giveaways.
Simpson will wait to see if they will get the second seed, which is incredibly important because the top two seeds receive first round byes and automatically advance to the semifinals.
The Cal Pac competition committee will be selecting the seeds for all six teams that qualify tomorrow at 12 PM, so the Red Hawks will wait for that result before they know who they will play in their first game in the Cal Pac Championship tournament.
