LANCASTER, Calif. - The women's basketball team traveled to Lancaster, CA to take on last year's defending Cal Pac Champions, the University of Antelope Valley Pioneers.
The Red Hawks battled the Pioneers in a true classic that had flashbacks from last year's Cal Pac Championship game between these two squads.
The Pioneers drew first blood as they hit a three-pointer to open the game scoring.
However,
Dyani Del Castillo answered back with a layup to get Simpson on the board with a pure effort play as she recorded two offensive rebounds on the same possession.
Simpson would grab its first lead of the night on the very next possession when
Rory Hetrick converted on a contested layup.
A physical battle throughout the game, Simpson capitalized on the Pioneer fouls in the opening quarter as they converted 5-6 from the line compared to UAV's 3-8.
The Red Hawks and Pioneers would enter the second quarter in a 12-12 deadlock.
UAV would break the tie with a layup that would start a 6-0 Pioneer run.
Rachel Gafford would hit a huge three-pointer to break the Pioneer run and pull Simpson within three points.
Down by six late in the second quarter, Simpson would have a late surge started by
Tessa Kinney's layup.
Kinney converted on a huge basket that would draw a foul on the play. Kinney would nail the free throw to complete the three-point play.
Nikki Thompson would end the second half with a layup that would pull Simpson within one point as they headed into the half down, 22-23.
Hetrick would give Simpson the lead to begin the second half of play with a layup.
Simpson would grow its lead to five points on two occasions by big shots by Del Castillo. Once after a mid-range jumper and the second time on a three-pointer from downtown.
Sophomore
Anna Marshall would create an impact play with a steal and then a converted bucket to pull Simpson within two points to begin the fourth and final quarter of play.
The Pioneers would explode for 10 unanswered points as they grew it's biggest lead of the game to 12 points.
Back-to-back three-pointers by
Hannah Parsons would put Simpson back on track as they would cut the Pioneer deficit in half.
Simpson would pull within one point with just over a minute left to play after a Gafford free throw.
After an exchange of converted free throws, the Pioneers would hold a 56-55 lead with just over 30 seconds to play after two huge free throws by
Tessa Kinney.
The Red Hawks would catch a break as the Pioneers would commit a technical foul by calling a timeout with none remaining.
Rory Hetrick would tie the game at 56 on a free throw. But the Pioneers would grab the one-point lead 57-56 after going 1-2 from the line.
With fifteen seconds left, Simpson would find themselves in prime position to score the game-winner.
But an unfortunate bounce would create a turnover that would doom the Red Hawks.
The Pioneers would close out the highly contested game, 59-56.
Rory Hetrick would have a team-high 12 points followed by
Dyani Del Castillo and
Nikki Thompson who each accounted for nine points and a combined 12 rebounds.
With the loss, Simpson falls one game out of a first-place tie with Park, Ben U, and UAV in the Cal Pac standings.
Simpson will look to rebound as they hit the road to take on Park-Gilbert University on January 11th at 5:30 PM.
