CARSON, Calif. – The Simon Fraser men's basketball team made a winning return to the court Friday night, defeating host California State Dominguez Hills 63-52 at the CCAA-GNAC Challenge in Carson, California.
 
It was the first regular season game for SFU in 622 days. Its last contest took place at Montana State Billings on Feb. 29, 2020, which the team won 74-73 on a buzzer-beating three-point shot by Michael Hannan.
 
On Friday, sophomore guard David Penney scored 19 points and grabbed seven rebounds to pace the SFU offence. He also earned 13 shots from the foul line, converting nine.
 
Senior forward Jasdeep Singh and junior guard Drew Bryson each contributed 11 points. Bryson also had seven rebounds, and a team-best three assists. Senior forward Julian Roche had the most rebounds of any SFU player with nine.
 

Simon Fraser came up clutch in the final minutes of the contest, ending it with a 10-3 run.

A pair of Dominguez Hills foul shots with 3:47 to go in the game capped off an 8-1 run, and cut SFU's lead to just 53-49. Each team then got defensive stops before junior guard Jahmal Wright made a layup at 2:40 to push the margin to six points – 55-49 – in favour of SFU.
 
The Toros couldn't score on their next possession, and SFU took the ball. It couldn't convert on its first layup attempt, but a team offensive rebound allowed head coach Steve Hanson to call a timeout. Out of the break, Singh nailed a three-point shot to make it 58-49 with 1:49 on the clock.
 
CSUDH missed its shot on the ensuing possession but got the offensive rebound. Then Wright stole the ball for SFU, and the turnover eventually turned into two successful foul shots from Penney. The Toros made a three with 39 seconds left to trail 60-52, however, Penney made three of his four free throws after that to seal the win.
 
Roche and Bryson got the first two baskets of the second half to open up a 36-24 advantage for the visiting Canadians. The Toros closed to 39-32 with 13:03 remaining, before a basket from SFU senior guard Josiah Mastandrea about four minutes later put the lead right back at 12.
 

SFU took a 32-24 into halftime after scoring the last seven points of the half on two baskets from senior guard Jordan Lyons, and free throws from Singh, freshman guard Colten Northrop, and Penney.

The teams were engaged in close back-and-forth battle throughout the first half with neither team able to build a lead larger than five points until there was 1:03 left on the clock. A slam dunk by Lyons as part of SFU's run to end the half made it 31-24, before Penney's foul shot closed out the scoring.
 
SFU made 21 of its 54 shots from the field Friday night (38.9 per cent), and its stifling defence held the Toros to 16 field goals on 50 attempts for 32 per cent shooting. The visitors scored 30 of their points inside the paint, compared to 14 for CSUDH.
 
SFU will wrap up the tournament with a Saturday game against Humboldt State (Calif.) at 5 p.m. It will play a non-conference contest Monday (5 p.m.) at California State Los Angeles, before returning home to host The SFU Showdown.
 

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The tournament is one of the big showcases of basketball in the Lower Mainland this year. SFU will host Central Washington on Friday (7 p.m.) at the West Gym, before a Buchanan Cup showdown against UBC next Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale now.

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