REDDING, Calif. - The men's basketball team played a thriller against Cal State Maritime last night and came out victorious 84-77 in OT to improve its conference record to 3-1 on the young season.
The Keelhaulers drew first blood as they opened the game with a 4-0 lead.
But
Osumanu Nuhu got the Red Hawks on the board with a hard-fought layup in the paint to cut the deficit in half.
Simpson would grab its first lead of the night at the halfway mark in the first half when
Trey Conrad drilled a three-ball from downtown.
Conrad padded the lead shortly after on a layup to give Simpson a five-point lead.
CSUM would grab the 30-29 lead late in the first half with less than two minutes on the clock.
However, a 9-0 Red Hawks run qued by a couple of
Akin Branco free throws and capped off by two converted free throws by Conrad extended Simpson's lead to 38-30 heading into the half.
Conrad led the Red Hawks in the first half with 10 points while shooting 3-4 from the floor and 2-2 from beyond the arc.
Branco followed close behind with nine points and five rebounds.
Kevin Robello had some key three-pointers as he totaled eight points while shooting 3-4 from the floor and 2-3 from beyond the arc in the first half.
The first second-half points belonged to
Parker Martens who converted on a layup in the paint.
However, Keelhaulers would grab the 46-43 lead on a 16-5 CSUM run with thirteen and a half minutes left.
CSUM would extend its largest lead of the night to six points with less than eight minutes on the clock.
A 5-2 Red Hawks run late in the second half with just under two minutes of play would put Simpson down only two points, 59-61.
Parker Martens would then convert on a highly contested layup that drew a foul, thus setting up the possibility of a three-point play.
Martens would complete the three-point play as he sunk the free throw to give Simpson the lead back, 62-61 with one minute left.
Conrad would draw the late foul and convert on both of his free throws to put the Red Hawks up three points with less than 20 seconds left.
The Keelhaulers would answer back and hit a game-tying three-pointer with .04 seconds on the clock to send the game into overtime.
Branco would begin the OT period with a layup to give Simpson the early lead.
Simpson would find itself up three points with just over a minute to play when
Drey Ubas would seemingly ice the game as he would drain both of his free throws to make it a two-possession game.
The Red Hawks would prevail over the Keelhaulers in OT and take the game 84-77.
This marks the third straight game Simpson has erased a second-half deficit and the second time where they came out on top.
It was a great team effort by the Red Hawks squad as they registered six different players with double-digit points.
This included
Trey Conrad,
Parker Martens,
Drey Ubas,
Sam Shields,
Akin Branco, and
Kevin Robello.
Trey Conrad led the way with 16 points to go along with three assists.
Branco, Martens, and Shields had a big game rebounding as they combined for 22 boards on the night.
With the win, Simpson is now tied with St. Katherine for third place in the Cal Pac standings.
Simpson will take a break from conference play and take on Cal State Eastbay (Dec. 16th), Chico State (Dec. 19th), and William Jessup (Dec. 30th) to round out the month of December.
They will kick back up conference play on the road against UC Merced on Jan. 2nd.
