Men's Basketball drops Cal Pac opener to Simpson

The Redhawks built an early double-digit lead and the Keelhaulers never led as Simpson came out of the gate more intense and focused than Maritime and withstood the Keelhauler's come back attempts.

In the blink of an eye Cal Maritime was down 9-0 before senior Justin Eisen hit a three pointer to break the scoreless start. Simpson came out fast and barraged the Keelhaulers on their home floor with an array of dunks, threes and transition buckets.

The Keelhaulers were down 12-3 when junior center Ben Borja threw down a slam of his own to finally get Cal Maritime on the board again. Junior Josh Hauser hit a shot after a Darnell Harris rebound to make 12-7 Simpson. Hauser was fouled but couldn't convert the three-point play.

A couple of ticky-tack calls sent sophomore Zavier Lucero to the bench and helped put Simpson up by nine with 12:30 left first half. Senior Kyle Osterstock hit a three to keep the Keelhaulers alive as they trailed 28-16 with 8:20 left in half. Head Coach Brendan Rooney called full time out down 39-22 with 3:24 left before the intermission when were losing the turnover battle 12-3 and were shooting just 32%, but did have three more rebounds. than the Redhawks.

Maritime went on a mini run before the half to trim it to a 13-point deficit as Eisen and senior Donovin Townsend hit some big three pointers before the break. Keelhaulers still shooting just 38% at the halt and had committed six more turnovers as well.

But the Keelhaulers would make things interesting, as Eisen would cut it to a single-digit deficit 49-40 with 16 minutes left in the game and Hauser hit a three to cut it to 51-43 with 14:28 left.

A strong take to the basket for Lucero along with a free throw had the Keelhaulers down just 51-46 with 14 minutes left, and Hauser would hit a three to get the Cal Maritime within two. But Simpson would extend their lead to double digits again before Lucero converted another three-point play with a bucket and foul to cut it to a 66-57 deficit with 7:41 remaining.

Borja hit a couple of shots off the glass with his left the to cut it to a 67-63 deficit. Only to see the Keelhaulers trail by 10 again at 75-65 with 3:09 remaining, as every time Cal Maritime threatened Simpson would go on a run and eventually win the conference opener 83-71 over the Keelhaulers.

Cal Maritime shot just 41% from the field including just 29% behind the arc. Simpson meanwhile shot 48% from the field and 37% from three-point range. The Keelhaulers won the rebound battle 43-37 but committed a very uncharacteristic 22 turnovers to just 13 for Simpson.

Hauser led the Keelhaulers with 16 points on 6 for 16 shooting along with six rebounds. Eisen and Borja each finished with 14 and Lucero had 12 points and seven rebounds. Harris contributed to Cal Maritime's rebounding advantage with 10 boards on the night.

UP NEXT: The Keelhaulers will host the #5 team in the country in Marian University at 2 p.m. on Sunday, December 16.