Despite one of their best shooting nights of the season, the Park University Gilbert men's basketball team came up short against Simpson, 81-65, and fell to 4-17 on the season and 0-4 in conference play.
Led by Jacob Bingham, the Buccaneers shot 44% from the field in the first half of the game and 57.1% from beyond the arc. All four first half three-pointers came from Bingham, who has struggled to find the mark as of late, but finished today with a career-high 20 points.
While Bingham was getting it done from a distance, forward Craig Mueller made the most of his high-percentage looks. With 10 points (5-7), he was the only other Buccaneer besides Bingham to reach double-figures and grabbed five rebounds to go along with it.
Behind his hot hand, the Buccaneers made a nice run at the end of the first half and carried their momentum into the second half; they went on a 10-0 run to make it a two-point game, which forced a Redhawks' timeout.
That timeout turned fateful though as the Redhawks regrouped and retook a double-digit lead that they never looked back from. Bingham and the rest of the team's hot shooting cooled off a bit in the second half, but stayed solid.
They outshot the Redhawks 46% to 44.3%, but the glaring statistic that cost the Bucs the game was turnovers. The Redhawks were not particularly careful with the ball themselves, but their 17 seemed manageable compared to the 27 racked up by the Buccaneers.
The Buccaneers have a quick turnaround, as they are scheduled to play UC-Merced at 7 p.m. on Sunday night at The PHHacility in Phoenix, Ariz.
Notes:
Erik Palmer finished the game with nine points (4-6) and three rebounds, ending his streak of four straight games with a double-double.
Malcolm Hudson-Haynes scored a career-high eight points.
Jabari Sutherland played his first game with the varsity team this season and finished with two points and two rebounds.
Bingham now has back-to-back double-figure scoring performances; this is the first time he has done that since he did it in the first three games of the season from Oct. 29-Nov. 4.
