EUGENE, Ore. – Flipping a halftime deficit into a second half lead wasn't enough for the Corban University Men's Basketball team this evening in game one of the Dave Lipp Classic hosted by Bushnell University, as the Warriors offense stalled with ten minutes remaining in the match to drop a 66-59 neutral site decision to Simpson University.
"Tonight was a tough loss, as we didn't shoot the ball particularly well," Warriors' head coach Taylor Kelly stated. "But I thought we defended and rebounded much better."
First half defensive scrums have been the name of the game for the Warriors (1-3) through all four of their matchups thus far this season, with today's game being no different as each team was held to under 35 points through 20 minutes of play. A 34-32 halftime advantage for the RedHawks (3-4) was primarily earned at the free throw line and beyond the three-point arc, hitting all seven of their attempts from the charity stripe while shooting over 43% from three-point territory.
A 33% success rate from three while missing three of their four free throw attempts wasn't what Coach Kelly was looking for from his offense in the opening period, turning to senior guard Drayton Caoile and junior guard Payton Meyers off the bench for a ten-piece from each of the Oregon natives to keep them in this contest early.
With one of their least productive halves of offense now in the rearview mirror, the Warriors turned the corner and found their offensive stride over the first ten minutes of the second half to lead by nine with just over a quarter of regulation remaining. Despite being stymied on their own offensive half of the court for a majority of the second half, Simpson would slowly chip away at their deficit and only trail by four at the final media timeout.
Fouls would prove costly down the stretch for Corban men's basketball, committing over double the number of fouls compared to the RedHawks that provided Simpson with twice as many free throw attempts and wouldn't even need an offensive possession at times to score points as the Warriors put them in the bonus early in the second half.
Only seven points scored from the ten-minute mark onward for the Navy and Gold ultimately resulted in their seven-point neutral site loss, with the RedHawks able to clinch the victory via the free throw stripe and untimely shot selections by the Warriors over the course of tonight's matchup.
Sophomore guard Ben Krystkowiak scored a team-best 13 points with five rebounds and a pair of steals in the Corban loss, while Meyers added 12 more and Caoile finished with ten points, five rebounds, and three assists. Simpson guard Derek Gordon was the game leader in points tonight with a 17-point, 13-rebound double-double performance, with guards Trey Conrad and Drey Ubas adding 16 and 13 points, respectively.
The Warriors will return to the Morse Center tomorrow afternoon for a 12:30pm tipoff against Hope International University (5-1) in only their second matchup with the Royals in program history.
Follow Corban Athletics:
Facebook l Twitter l Instagram l YouTube l Email