REDDING, Calif. – The Corban University Men's Basketball program was the team to beat this weekend in northern California, as the Warriors completed a 2-0 weekend earlier this evening behind a 69-59 road victory over Simpson University, making them the only squad in the 2025 Simpson Classic to go undefeated and finally end their six-game road trip to start the 2025-26 regular season with back-to-back victories.
"This team is really starting to come together in a special way," analyzed Warriors' head coach Wayne Mendezona, who celebrated his third win as the program's head coach while enjoying his birthday today at the James M. Grant Center with yet another victory. "This has been the best two games we put together in the short season. We had great contribution from everyone, especially for our upperclassmen players. Niko, Oreon, T.J., Joe, and Andre were collectively a force that was hard to be reckoned with this weekend. T.J. was very impressive scoring down the low post and was unstoppable at times. Niko contributed excellent defense and strength on the inside and Anjay and Oreon were causing problems for our opponents on both ends of the court. Their athleticism and speed caused us to get out on the break, which led to a lot of easy buckets that were statement plays, breaking the morale of the two teams that we played. And Joe has been very instrumental in closing out our first game against Cal State Maritime and just playing such outstanding on-ball defense in both matchups. Still have a lot of work to do, but we are slowly but surely getting to where we know we can get to in order to win in conference, which is where it all counts."
All four lead changes came in the first 15 minutes of today's contest, as the Navy and Gold (3-3) returned to .500 on the season after taking a 29-28 lead on a tip-in from redshirt junior center Tj Zimmermann and never relinquishing the lead for the remainder of the matchup with Simpson (3-6). After leading by four at halftime, the Dubs gutted out a ten-point victory after leading by as many as 15 points with 3:27 left in regulation, allowing Mendezona an opportunity to flex his bench and allow 12 different Warriors to see playing time tonight.
Yet another double-double effort by redshirt senior guard Anjay Cortez provided Corban with the well-rounded effort they needed to complete the undefeated weekend, as he both scored 11 points and hauled in 11 boards alongside a trio of steals. Graduate student forward Oreon Courtney scored a team-high 17 points while adding nine rebounds and a game-high four assists along the way, while Zimmermann finished his evening with 12 points and five boards.
Just under half of the Red Hawks' scoring tonight came via guard Timothy Parker, who was responsible for 22 points and was the only Simpson player in double-figures. Forward Aidan Rolfs added nine points and nine rebounds to fall one shy in each statistical category of a double-double performance.
The Warriors will finally make the trek back to Salem one final time before they enjoy the Thanksgiving break and return to Tim Hills Court for their home opener, which will take place a week from today on Saturday, November 29th at 2pm against Northwest Indian College (0-8).
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