Doh.

The Simpson University men's basketball team spotted Carroll College a 2-0 lead before the teams ever even tipped off Friday night, and the Saints went on to scrap out a tough 80-68 victory in their home opener at the P.E. Center.

Sophomore post Andy Garland sunk a pair of free throws just prior to tipping off for the Saints, thanks to a technical foul assessed to the Redhawks for a failure to report their lineup prior to the game. Garland later converted another pair of free throws after an additional Simpson technical for substituting an unrecorded player less than five minutes into the game, putting his team up 20-13.

The second-year big man did plenty between the whistles as well, muscling through the Redhawks frontline for game-highs of 23 points and 19 rebounds.

Garland's totals included nine offensive rebounds, as he and the rest of the Saints' bigs outmuscled and just plain out-sized their visitors.

Carroll recorded 24 offensive rebounds in the game, exceding their own 19 defensive boards and Simpson's total of just 20 rebounds.

Freshman center James MacIntyre chipped in his own eight boards and eight points for the Saints.

Redshirt freshman point guard Casey Rogers and senior wing Chris Medina chipped in 13 points apiece behind Garland, combining for five of their team's eight 3-pointers.

Despite the size advantage, the Saints never led by more than seven points prior to the break, and Simpson knotted the score twice - once in the first minute of the game, and then again in the final minute of the half.

"I thought we took too many threes in that first half and just settled for bad shots," Carroll head coach Brandon Veltri said. "We shot 38 percent in the first half and 51 percent in the second half, so that tells you a lot."

Rogers dropped in a high-arching 3-pointer from the left corner to break the first tie. Garland later slapped a drop-off pass from a driving Medina off the glass to secure a 40-38 Caroll lead at the break.

The Redhawks finally took their first lead of the night three minutes into the second half, when Dwight Bond was hacked while converting on a drive down the right baseline. Bond converted his free throw to put his team up 45-42, and the Simpson lead ballooned to 49-42 after a pair of Carroll turnovers.

The Saints quickly called timeout with 16 minutes remaining, and freshman wing Ben Cutler then converted hard drive off the left wing to kick off a 7-0 run to knot the score yet again.

The teams fought to six more lead changes, before Cutler gave his team the advantage for good with a floater from the middle of the key with 11 minutes remaining.

Carroll outscored the Redhawks 23-12 the rest of the way, behind a balanced scoring effort.

"I thought we did a much better job running our stuff in the second half," Veltri said. "They don't have a lot of size, so our bigs had to step out and cover them. I think we did a better job with that as the game wore on, as well."

Andrew Schritter led Simpson with 17 points. Guard Jason Stubbs did the most damage between driving and scoring for the Redhawks, but battled foul trouble throughout the game before fouling out with four minutes remaining. He finished with 13 points.

Trent Makela: 447-4085 or trent.makela@helenair.com