Cal Maritime earns near wire-to-wire win at Simpson

REDDING, Calif. – Led by Jamal Frenchwood with 13 points, eight players scored five or more points in Saturday's Cal Pac road opener at Simpson, and the team connected on 45 percent of its shots to leave the James M. Grant Center with a 64-59 victory.

Simpson score the first basket of the night, but CSUM responded with back-to-back field goals by Drew Fisher and DeAndre Minor, that last recorded 95 seconds into the game, which gave CSUM the lead for the rest of the evening.

This snapped the Red Hawks' four game head-to-head win streak on their own floor, even though one of those wins included a desperation heave at the buzzer to defeat CSUM by one when the teams met in Redding on New Year's Eve of 2022, and SU's six-game overall win streak against the Keelhaulers.

Leading by three with 5:52 remaining, Cal Maritime scored seven unanswered thanks to a pair of threes from Frenchwood and a free throw by Fisher to extend the team's lead to 10 points with just under two minutes left to play.

From that point on, Cal Maritime's defense took over and prevented SU from pulling within striking distance, even though it scored the game's last five points — the last with two seconds on the clock.

Cal Maritime will return to PEAC Main Gym for Tuesday's 6 p.m. non-conference tilt vs. Lincoln (CA), before returning to the road for its next three Cal Pac conference games.

Following games at La Sierra (Jan. 23) and Westcliff (Jan. 25), men's basketball hosts Nelson University-Arizona in this season's series finale before traveling to Pacific Union (Feb. 1) for another conference contest.

When men's basketball returns home from Angwin on the 1st, four of its last five Cal Pac games throughout the month of February will take place on its home floor.