Vallejo, CA — The win snapped a two-game losing streak for the Mustangs and evened their record at 2-2.

Scott’s (Spirit Lake, ID) charity toss was on the front end of a double bonus opportunity and when he missed the second, Simpson had a chance to win the game but Otar Pkhakadze’s three-point shot missed as time expired and the Mustangs escaped.

In a game in which the Mustangs never trailed, there wasn’t much thought given to the possibility of the game coming down to the final possession, at least through the first 27 minutes of action.

Keyed by a Delewis Johnson (Rancho Cucamonga, CA) three-pointer with 16:49 left in the first half, the Mustangs scored 10 straight points to go up 19-6.  Kaleb Anderson (Clovis, CA) scored the final five points of the run and his free throw at the 13:39 mark capped it off.

The Red Hawks responded a few minutes later with an 8-2 skein, carving the deficit to 21-14 on a Josh Brakkee basket with 10:30 left in the half.  The Mustangs pushed the margin back into double figures on a Johnson hoop and two J.P. Webster (Vallejo, CA) free throws and kept going, building a 34-17 lead when Johnson, who scored 17 first-half points, tallied a three-point play at the 5:16 mark.

In a half full of runs, the Red Hawks had two more left in them, using a 7-0 burst to close within 10 (34-24) and then a 6-0 move to make it a seven-point game (39-32) before Johnson put a stop to that with a trifecta that sent the Mustangs to the break ahead 42-32.

The Mustangs shot at a 47% clip (14-30) over the opening 20 minutes while holding the Red Hawks to 34% (12-35) accuracy.

Webster scored the second half’s first two points on a jumper for a 12-point advantage and the Mustangs enjoyed double-digit leads of 52-41 and 60-49 before the Red Hawks started to methodically chip away at the deficit.

They drew within 60-55 on a Brakkee free throw with 10:36 remaining but Reid Shackelford (Murrieta, CA) countered with a trey.  However, the Red Hawks made it a four-point (66-62) contest when Brakkee, who scored a game-high 24 points, hit a basket with 8:28 left to play.

A Philip Webb (Georgetown, Cayman Islands) basket with 7:13 remaining extended the Mustang advantage to 70-63, but the Red Hawks kept coming.  They scored the game’s next six points in a 1:32 span to get within one.

Just when it looked like the Red Hawks were going to race by the Mustangs, Webster and Shackelford came up big.  The former, playing before a hometown crowd, canned two free throws and the latter drained a three-pointer to give the Mustangs a 75-69 edge with just under four minutes remaining.

It was far from over.  Brakkee capped a quick, 4-0 Simpson burst with a bucket that brought his team within 75-73 at the 2:28 mark.  Nine seconds later, Johnson hit a big basket, the Mustangs’ last of the evening, extending the advantage to four points.

Neither team could produce any offense on the next couple of possessions before Brakkee hit one of two free throws at the 58-second mark to make it a three-point game.  Following a Brakkee miss off an offensive rebound and a held ball, and a Harrison White (Winston-Salem, NC) turnover, the Red Hawks completed a game-long rally, knotting the game at 77-all on a Jacob Kaler three-pointer with 18 seconds left to play.

All that did was set up Scott for his game-winning heroics.

Remarkably, Scott’s free throw was one of only four points scored by Mustang reserves.  The other 74 were scored by the starters, all of whom scored in double figures.  Johnson paced the Mustangs with 21 points on 8-10 shooting from the field, including 2-3 from behind the arc.

Webster went for 16 points, highlighted by a 10-10 performance from the line, while Shackelford drained four trifectas en route to 14 points.  Anderson contributed a dozen more and Webb notched his second double-double of the season, with 11 points and a team-high 11 rebounds.

Next up for the Mustangs is an exhibition against Azusa Pacific next Friday evening in the San Gabriel Valley.