Men's Basketball wins rematch with Simpson 68-59

The win along with UC Merced's loss to PUC put Cal Maritime in second place in the Cal Pac Conference standings all by themselves after entering the game in a three-way tie with Simpson and Merced.

The Keelhaulers came into the rematch with the Redhawks looking to get the bad taste out of their mouth from their loss in Redding, Calif. in the Cal Pac opener. Simpson pulled away in the second half of that first meeting, but this time Cal Maritime flipped the script.

The teams were tied at eight apiece after a Matthew Esssien hop-step layup five minutes into the game, but after a run by Simpson, Cal Maritime found themselves down by eight with 10:12 to go in the half. However, a Trey Porter dunk tied it at 20-20 and Josh Hauser would give them a 22-20 lead with a jumper in the lane.

The game was tied at 24-24 with 5:12 to in the half but from there Simpson would use their height advantage to control the paint and the glass to go up by five at the break.

The Keelhaulers had trouble corralling rebounds after getting stops. The big Simpson front would at least keep the ball alive before gathering the board. Other times it would just be an odd carom the Keelhaulers didn't anticipate or just had bad luck on as they trailed 21-7 in rebounds at the half.

Offensively Cal Maritime forced some shots that wouldn't be considered the best shot of a possession, while on the other end Simpson would only need a little bit of daylight to get off a good look and they did a great job of freeing shooters with screens.

But the Keelhaulers defense would tighten in the second half against the Redhawks, which was the opposite of how their first meeting turned out. Two turnovers opened half for each team as both tried to do too much in their first possessions after the intermission.

The lead would grow to eight for Simpson on multiple occasions in the second half, but Zavier Lucero and Josh Hauser's fadeaway jumpers and drives to the basket would set up a Trey Porter hook shot off the glass that would cut it two a one-point deficit with 12:45 to go.

Cetrick Yeanay would hit a three to give Cal Maritime a one-point lead with 9:18 remaining in the game for the Keelhaulers first lead since they were up 22-21 with 6:33 to go in the first half.

The score would be tied four more times before the Keelhaulers would take the lead for good with 3:31 to go on a Lucero face-up jumper near the baseline. A thunderous swat of a Simpson shot by Ben Borja along with he and Lucero sinking their free throws late sealed the victory for Cal Maritime in the 68-59 win.

Lucero finished with 18 points five rebounds and two steals. Yeanay and Hauser each finished with 13 points and Hauser had five rebounds while dishing out four assists as he continues to inch towards the all-time assists record at Cal Maritime. The Thousand Oaks, Calf. native currently has 238 assists and is chasing Andrew Medeiros 267.

Simpson shot 45% from the field in the first half, including 4 of 8 from three-point range, but shot just 31% in the second half and were 0 for 4 from deep. Cal Maritime had a great night at the free-throw line hitting 83% of their foul shots while Simpson shot just 68% from the line.

After the Redhawks had three times the number of rebounds as the Keelhaulers in the first half, Cal Maritime won the rebounding battle in the second half by one and won the turnover margin by eight in a game that featured eight lead changes.

UP NEXT: Men's Basketball will head to La Sierra University to take on the Golden Eagles on Thursday, February 6 for a 7:30 tip off.