SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

[PointGuard]

Cal Poly Mustangs (7-7, 2-3) @ UC Irvine Anteaters (11-5, 5-1)

Eugene Wallace, 2nd Assistant Coach (player development)

Big crowd at Donald Bren Events Center and most are rabid Anteaters’ fans. UC Irvine has eaten up the home-cooking with double-digit wins in all their home games this season. Greg Walker, their 6-11 center, is averaging 17.0 ppg and 7.1 rpg. He’s had 6 games in which he’s scored over 20 points (and he scored 33 in two of those). If we can contain him, Don Seals should cancel him out. PF’s Dereck Clayton and Chris Shipp are very high percentage shooters and combine to average 14 ppg.

Son of a (bleep)! SF Charles Gordon has been called for 2 fouls just 2 minutes and 20 seconds into the game. But at the first media timeout we’re up 8-3 with C Don Seals accounting for 6 of those points. The refs are calling things tight…they need to let the game flow more. We go up by 7 but the Anteaters drop in 9 straight points in less than 2 minutes to pull ahead with 12 minutes left in the half. We’re making too darned many turnovers which is negating some good shooting by us. But we force a bunch of turnovers by UC Irvine late in the half and due to hitting 58% of our FG’s we move out to a 39-28 halftime lead. C Don Seals has been experiencing migraines but thinks he says he can play in the 2nd half.

We have a good start in the 2nd half, but the refs are calling all the fouls against us. After going up by 14, the Anteaters cut our lead to 8 at the midpoint of the 2nd half. Both teams are making a lot of turnovers. Coach Aura gets on the guys during the next to last media timeout. But we keep throwing the ball away and with 6 minutes to go our lead has shrunk to just 6 points. SG Vince Carson fouls out and SF Charles Gordon has 4 fouls with just under 3 minutes to play and us ahead 52-48. With 2 minutes left we lead by just 2 and make yet another turnover. We’re still not in the bonus. PF Curtis Pearson muscles up a short jumper that falls through to put us up by 4 with a minute to go. But the Anteaters hit a FG and we make another turnover to give them the ball with 30 seconds left. We’re called for a foul and they sink both shots to tie the game with 23 seconds remaining. We call a timeout, miss a shot, but grab the offensive rebound and call another timeout with 9 seconds to go. Our play fails and UCI’s desperation 3 isn’t close and we go to OT.

PG Aki Mosley is dog-tired but scores our first 7 points in the OT to put us up by 3. Pearson then makes a put-back to put us ahead 63-58. But UCI sinks a 3. We’re then called for an offensive foul. Coach Aura is livid. UCI knocks down another 3 to put us down by a single point. Then with 56 seconds remaining, Derrick LaLane hits a baseline jumper to put us ahead 65-64. UCI misses and we rebound and are fouled. SG Terrell Alexander sinks both ends of the one-and-one to put us up by 3 with 28 seconds to go. The Anteaters hit a FG and foul on the inbounds play. Another 1-and-1 for Alexander…he makes both shots with 16 seconds to go. Big time pressure shooting by Terrell to convert back to back 1 & 1’s! Following a timeout, our defensive pressure makes UCA work the ball around outside to try to get off a shot. They finally put up a 3 that rims off, time expires, and we escape with a thrilling 69-66 overtime victory against the top team in the conference.

PG Aki Mosley dropped in 21 points, PF Curtis Pearson had 15 points and 13 rebounds, and C Don Seals added 12 points.

Even with our 3-3 record, that win moved us up into sole possession of 4th place in the Big West.

[PointGuard]

Janeka Aura

Malik had 4 straight games in which he didn’t score in double figures. He shot poorly but did make some nice assists. But he’s come back and scored in double figures the past 3 games, including where scoring over 20 points in 2 of those games and hit a high percentage of his shots. He’s still the leading scorer for Georgetown, averaging 16.3. ppg. He’s also averaging 3.7 apg, 3.6 rpg, and 2.2 spg. The Hoyas now have a season record of 11-8 and are 6 and 4 in the Big East, good enough for 3rd place.

Omari continues to come in off the bench for the Indiana Pacers. His playing time is pretty limited but he’s averaging almost 5 ppg and 4 rpg. Not bad for his first year in the NBA. The Pacers are a little under .500 thus far this season.

Fred is keeping track of Boston College. They’re now 9-8 this season, but have only won 3 of their 8 ACC games thus far. Fred doesn’t say much about it, but I think he’s sad to see how far down the Eagles have fallen in just 2 years. Ben Schau, who is now a junior, is averaging 11.2 ppg and 11.9 rpg. Two players who Fred recruited just before he left BC are now sophomores…Brent Jepperson is averaging 13.2 ppg and 9.4 rpg and Noel Carr is averaging 14.8 ppg and 5.5 rpg. But the rest of the team isn’t very productive.

This is the 8th season since Fred coached at Towson. That team has fallen from being a regular NCAA Tournament participant to a .500 team for several years to 5-25 last year…and now this season has won just 3 while losing 13 games. But those 3 wins have been in Colonial Athletic Association play where they’ve lost 2, so they’re presently tied for 3rd place.

[PointGuard]

Cal State Fullerton Titans (9-6, 4-2) @ Cal Poly Mustangs (8-7, 3-3)

Rashon Richardson, 3rd Assistant Coach (scouting)

The Titans have played well defensively this season, but I think overall we match up pretty well against them. I’m hoping C Don Seals can have a big game even though he goes up against CSU Fullerton’s C Derek Houston, who is a pretty good player. Another key matchup will be at PG where I think Aki Mosley could outplay the Titans’ Rashaun Fry. John McGadney, their SF, is hitting a high percentage of his shots, so Charles Gordon needs to keep him in check. But we need to control the ball and not make so many turnovers as we’ve been doing recently.

C. J. Costa, 1st Assistant Coach (recruiting)

Rashon’s scouting tonight so let me clue you in on the game action:

Both teams have a tough time getting the ball into the hoop early in the first half. We’re not playing well against the Titans’ 1-3-1 zone…just not getting open for good shots. We finally begin to break it and go ahead 18-16 with 5 minutes to play. The half ends with the score tied at 27-27.

We have another slow start in the 2nd half and fall behind by 7 after 4 minutes of play. We quickly cut the lead to 2, but then go ice-cold and CSU Fullerton builds a 15 point lead with 8 minutes to play. And if you don’t knock down shots, you’re not going to have a chance when you fall that far behind. And we didn’t, losing 71-57. We drop to 7th place in the standings.

PG Aki Mosley scored 25, C Don Seals added 10, and PF Derrick LaLane scored 8….but Pearson, Gordon, Alexander and Carson combined to hit just 6 of 28 shots.

Injury: PF Derrick LaLane sprained his toe late in the game. He should be able to play, but his playing time is likely to be limited for the next 3 games. That’s tough since he’s one of 7 key players. We’ll have to backfill with some walk-on players.

[PointGuard]

Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners (8-9, 2-5) @ Cal Poly Mustangs (8-8, 3-4)

Tom Poole, Cal Poly alum

I graduated from Cal Poly 50 years ago. I left the area to pursue an engineering career. After retiring I decided to return and got a nice place in Pismo Beach just a few miles south of San Luis Obispo.

Cal Poly is having a very weird season. They’re 3-3 at home and 5-5 on the road. It’s time for them to assert some home dominance. And who better to begin that against than Cal State Bakersfield. The Roadrunners have had a so-so year, and I think if the Mustangs can control C Doylan Madsen, they’ll roll to a nice home court victory. I understand that PF Derrick LaLane has an injury that will limit his playing time and force Coach Aura to play some of his many walk-on players, so that could put a wrinkle into my prior statement.

Cal State Bakersfield used a combination of hitting 3’s (9 of 14) and poor shooting (36%) and turnovers (12) by the Mustangs to take a commanding 47-33 halftime lead. Cal Poly played like THEY were the road team.

Cal Poly looked absolutely horrible in the 2nd half. Their defense was porous. Turnovers and poor shooting by the Mustangs continued. They trailed by double digits (and as much as 20 points) for almost the entire half. It was apparent to everyone that Cal Poly was going down to an ignominious defeat. But apparently NOT to the Cal Poly Players, because with 3-1/2 minutes to go, the Mustangs put on a phenomenal rally. Training 79-63, they scored 18 unanswered points. PG Aki Mosley drilled a 3 to tie the game and the Mustangs took the lead at 81-79 with 17 seconds to go when C Don Seals worked the ball in down low and put up an 8 footer than fell cleanly through the silks. The Roadrunners brought the ball up court and missed a shot to tie with 8 seconds remaining, forcing them to intentionally foul with 4 seconds left. Victor Carson dropped in both shots to complete the 20-0 run that sealed one of the most amazing comebacks in Cal Poly history. The Mustangs WON 83-79. Cal State Bakersfield left the court in absolute shock.

PG Aki Mosley scored 23 points, C Don Seals had 16 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists, PF Derrick LaLane scored 16 points while on the court just 18 minutes, and SG Terrell Alexander hit for 11 points.

The final 3-1/2 minutes became a frequently played and highly watched video segment on ESPN and YouTube. Coach Aura’s comment: “37 minutes of agony, 3 minutes of ecstasy.”

[PointGuard]

Coach Aura’s comments during a Coaches’ Meeting:

“Another home game and for 90% of the game, it was like our guys had never been on our court before. I’d like to believe that the final few minutes of our game against the Roadrunners excised our home court demons, but that’s wishful thinking. We’ve played well on the road thus far, but we can’t continue to play as poorly at home. We need to create a belief within our players that they DOMINATE on our home court. Let’s work on developing confidence and an expectation for home success within our players. I’m changing the music that plays during our practice sessions here that will go along with a lot of positivity about our home court. And we’ll use that same new music during pre-game and 2nd half warmups. More importantly, let’s instill in our players that we don’t let absolutely NO ONE beat us at Robert A. Mott Athletic Center. With 3 straight away games coming up next, we have a week-and-a-half before out next home game to mold that belief in the minds of our players.”

[PointGuard]

Cal Poly Mustangs (9-8, 4-4) @ Hawaii Rainbow Warriors (5-13, 4-5)

Rob Benchley, Athletic Director

One of the perks of being an AD is that I can choose when I’m going to accompany the team on their road trips. So, here I am in Hawaii.

Hawaii hit 5 of their first 7 shots including 3 from outside the arc to take a 13-2 lead. We then began slowly chipping away at the lead. But we could get no closer than 3 points and the half ended with us on the short end of a 37-32 halftime score.

We kept getting within 2-3 points but then the Rainbow Warriors would immediately reopen an 8-12 point lead. We were forced to attempt 3’s late in the game and they just didn’t fall. We got beat by a final score of 74-65.

C Don Seals who scored 22 points was our only player to score in double figures.

[PointGuard]

Cal Poly Mustangs (9-9, 4-5) @ UC Riverside Highlanders (11-8, 6-4)

Excerpts from KCPR—Cal Poly radio station play-by-play broadcast

*Hey Mustangs' students and fans, this is Casey Mullins bringing you tonight’s Cal Poly game agains the Highlanders of UC Riverside. There’s a pretty sparse but rabid crowd here. Coach Aura said his team will be at full strength even though PF Derrick LaLane is still nursing a sprained toe injury. In the previous two games since LaLane sustained the injury, he’s played very well even though he’s been on the court fewer minutes. But limiting his playing time has stressed the other Mustangs’ interior players, C Don Seals and PF/C Curtis Pearson.
*Starting for the Mustangs tonight will be Aki Mosley at PG, Terrell Alexander at SG, Charles Gordon at SF, Curtis Pearson at PF, and Don Seals at C. 3 of the Mustangs’ players are averaging in double figures, led by Don Seals 16.7 ppg. Aki Mosley scored 25 points in Cal Poly’s last game, improving his scoring this season to 11.2 ppg. And Charles Gordon is averaging 10.7 ppg. The top rebounders for the Mustangs are Charles Gordon with 6.7 rpg, Curtis Pearson with 5.8 rpg and Don Seals with 5.7 rpg. Aki Mosley tops the team in assists with 4.3 apg and Victor Carson isn’t far behind with 3.4 apg.
*For the Highlanders, C James Humphrey is averaging 16.7 ppg and 4.8 rpg and PF Mike King is averaging 11.2 ppg and 6.1 rpg. UC Riverside has won 7 of their 8 home games and their last 6 home games. The Highlanders are 6-1/2 point favorites in this game.
*The ref is ready to toss up the ball to start the game. Cal Poly controls the tip. Mosley dribbles over the halfcourt line and fires a pass inside to Seals on the left side of the key. Seals fakes one way and goes back the other, driving to the hoop and throwing down a dunk!
*Gordon picks off the pass, his 2nd steal and pushes the ball upcourt to Pearson who drives and slams it home to give the Mustangs a 10-6 lead with 15-1/2 minutes on the clock.
*Ohhh! Beautiful 3 by Alexander to give Poly a 5 point lead.
*Alexander sinks another 3…that’s 10 points for him and the Mustangs are on top 18-10.
*With Mosley taking a breather, 2 straight turnovers have cut the lead to 18-17 with 11:15 remaining in the half. UC Riverside has hit 7 of 10 from the field and all 3 of their free throws.
*Cal Poly playing for last shot. They nearly turn the ball over, but the refs have called the last touch against the Highlanders. The Mustangs inbound with 15 seconds left. But Gordon’s pass is intercepted and UC Riverside drills a 3 at the buzzer cutting Cal Poly’s halftime lead to 34-28. The was the only field goal by either team in the final 5-3/4 minutes of the half, sports fans!
*As the 2nd half begins, Coach Aura has the same players on the court who started the game. Mosley fouls Harris on the shot. Harris drops in both free throws to score the first points of the 2nd half.
*On Cal Poly’s first possession, Mosley dribbles back and forth outside, then flips the ball to Alexander who floats up a 3 that falls neatly through the hoop to make it 37-30. That’s 14 points for Alexander.
*They get the ball in to Seals. He takes the push from the defender and uses it to move to the basket for a slick finger roll.
*Pearson hits another 3 making it 42-30 and giving Pearson 13 points.
*Seals sinks a 12 foot baseline jumper from the right side and is fouled. He misses the foul shot, but Pearson muscles the rebound and puts up a quick jumper that drops through. Cal Poly leads 46-32 with 17:43 to go.
*Mosley picks up his 3rd foul. Carson is replacing him at the point.
*Four straight turnovers by the Mustangs. The Highlanders take advantage to cut the lead to 49-41.
*During the timeout it looked like Coach Aura was letting his players know he wasn’t happy about all the turnovers. Play resumes with the Mustangs ahead by just 4 points with 10-1/2 minutes to play.
*The Highlanders drop in the jumper to tie the game at 51-51.
*UC Riverside hits the shot and takes the lead at 55-53 with 7:11 remaining.
*After falling behind by 5, the Mustangs come back and Seals’s 3 ties the game again.
*Alexanders trifecta puts Cal Poly back on top 62-61.
*Gordon takes the pass at the top of the key. He drives down the right side of the key and puts up a shot. It’s off the rim, but he was fouled. He makes the first but misses the 2nd and it’s all tied up at 63-63 with 1:46 to go.
*Charles Gordon went down hard. He’s being taken off the court and to the locker room. Cal Poly calls a time out to set up a play with 1:19 on the clock. Mosley takes the ball cuts behind the screen and hits a 15 footer making it 65-63.
*The Highlanders drive down the key and hit a pull up jumper to tie it with 54 seconds to go.
*Carson works the ball over to LaLane. LaLane tries to take his man to the basket but has to pull up. He steps back and knocks down the quick jumper and its 67-65 in favor of the Mustangs with just 23 seconds to play. UC Riverside calls a timeout.
*UC Riverside’s Blanchard drives and converts to tie the game again with 17 seconds remaining.
*Whoa! The ref just called a technical on the Highlanders’ Piper. It looked like Piper was incensed because he felt they were fouled on the shot that they made. He must have said a couple wrong words. The Highlanders’ coach is NOT happy about the technical. Mosley goes to the line and sinks both free throws. Coach Aura sends his best free throw shooters in knowing that there will be a quick intentional foul.
*The ball is inbounded, there’s two quick passes and then Mosley is fouled with 10 ticks on the clock. He hits the front end of a one-and-one and toes the line. The second shot goes in also.
*UC Riverside tries to draw a foul on an attempted 3. But there’s no call and the shot misses anyway. Cal Poly pulls off a thrilling 71-67 win.
*The primary difference in this game was that the Mustangs hit 10 from beyond the arc whereas the Highlanders who hit 4 of their 3 point attempts.
*PF Curtis Pearson led the scoring with 18 points and C Don Seals and SG Terrell Alexander both scored 17 points. Those 3 players combined to knock down 18 of 34 of the FG attempts and 10 of 21 of their 3 point attempts. UC Riverside’s PF Mike King had 21 points and 7 boards, but the Mustangs held C James Humphrey to just 6 points and no rebounds.
*The Mustangs now travel to take on their 3rd straight game on the road two nights from now at Long Beach State.

*LATE BREAKING BULLETIN: I just heard from 2nd Assistant Coach Eugene Wallace that SF Charles Gordon has a broken arm. That will end his collegiate career since he’s a senior. Gordon was the team’s best rebounder and 3rd highest scorer. Although I expect Victor Carson will now start at SF, Gordon’s absence from the lineup will require a much greater amount of play by one or two walk-on players to fill in at SF and also pick up the minutes Carson was playing at SG and PG.

[PointGuard]

Cal Poly Mustangs (10-9, 5-5) @ Long Beach State 49ers (9-11, 4-7)

Zahara Carter, Assistant (sports administration)

This is Cal Poly’s 3rd away game in a 6 day span. Coach Aura isn’t happy about the scheduling for this part of the season. The Mustangs have played hard in the first two games, losing a tough game at Hawaii but then winning a thrilling game against UC Riverside. But we’re hoping that fatigue is not setting in for tonight's game. And losing Charles Gordon will be another big challenge for our team. Victor Carson is starting at SF tonight and we have confidence in him, but that just stresses our team’s short bench even more.

We beat the 49ers by 18 points when we played them at our place earlier this season. But their SF, Tahj Watkins, threw down 27 points against us in that game, so we need to keep that from occurring again. Long Beach State just finished playing 3 straight games on the road and lost all 3 of them, but they’ve played well at home this season and must be focused on breaking that losing streak.

Long Beach State scored the first 8 points. Our guys got back into the game but the 49ers held onto a small lead until we slipped ahead with 3 minutes to go in the half. The lead then shifted back and forth with the 49ers taking a slim 37-36 advantage at the end of the half. But our guys had made a gutsy effort.

We pulled ahead by a really small margin early in the 2nd half and while there were some lead changes we generally held a razor thin margin. Then with 7 minutes to go, our defense slowed Long Beach State and we opened a 7 point lead. From there we extended our advantage to as much as 11 points and went on to come away with a big 83-75 road win. We hit an amazing 58% of our FG attempts,53% of our 3’s, and 86% of our FT’s. We held Long Beach State’s shooting to 44% from the field including just 30% from 3-point distance. We needed all that to overcome our 23 turnovers.

PF Curtis Pearson played a tremendous game, hitting a phenomenal 12 of 13 from the field including all 3 of his 3’s and finishing with 32 points. C Don Seals had 14 points and 7 rebounds, SG Terrell Alexander scored 15 points, and SF Victor Carson was solid with 7 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals and a block. Carson also held the 49er’s SF Tahj Watkins to just 16 points.

Victor Carson said after the game, “We were determined to win this game for Charles Gordon. Hulk’s (Curtis Pearson’s) performance was fantastic! His scoring 20 of his 32 points in the 2nd half really led us to the victory.”

We now return home for 2 straight home games. Those games are against the two teams that are tied for 2nd place in the Big West standings so will be big test for our guys.

[PointGuard]

UC Irvine Anteaters (13-8, 7-4) @ Cal Poly Mustangs (11-9, 6-5)

Benny Tamago, local realtor and Cal Poly fan

I’m excited about how the Mustangs have played this season. They’ve pulled off some surprising wins on the road. Now they just need to show dominance at home. They edged the Anteaters in overtime when playing them on the road three weeks ago. Aki Mosley, who’s been inconsistent this season, had 21 points in that game.

The teams exchanged baskets for the first 8 minutes. But then, Aki Mosley got into foul trouble and the Anteaters pulled away to achieve a 42-32 halftime advantage. UC Irvine held onto their lead but midway through the 2nd half the Mustangs made a run to catch tie the game with 5 minutes remaining. But Cal Poly faded badly in the final minutes to lose 72-66.

C Don Seals, with 21 points, was the only player on Cal Poly to score in double figures. C Greg Walker led UC Irvine with 22 points and SG Steven Palmer scored 19 points.

[PointGuard]

UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (13-9, 8-4) @ Cal Poly Mustangs (11-10, 6-6)

1st Assistant Coach C. J. Costa

We’ve played pretty well since Charles Gordon broke his arm. Victor Carson has played solidly at SF and three of our walkon players (SF Kerry Hayes, PG Michael Turner, and SG Charlie Richeson) have stepped up with some sound minutes coming off the bench. We’ll absolutely need our best team effort to defeat the Gauchos tonight. They beat us by 13 when we played on their court and they’re distinctly favored to whip us tonight even though they’ve shown some chinks in their armor the past couple weeks.

The Gauchos came out hot and took a 22-11 lead but we then went on a 17-0 run to take a 6 point lead with 9:18 to play in the half. Late in the half we got careless with the ball and UC Santa Barbara took advantage to retake the lead 45-42 at the break. SF Steven Nichols bombarded us, hitting 5 of 9 from beyond the arc and scoring 19 points in the half.

We kept trying to catch up in the 2nd half and finally crept ahead with 13 minutes remaining. Holding onto the lead proved difficult since the Gauchos aren’t ones to fold. They regained the lead 2 minutes later. The lead shifted for the next 7 minutes. We then scored 8 straight unanswered points to take a 77-70 lead with 2:38 remaining. UC Santa Barbara cut out lead to just 3 points with a minute to go. The Gauchos then sunk a 3 to tie the game at 77-77 with 11 seconds left. Coach Aura called a time out for a final shot. The play failed and our shot at the buzzer wasn’t close, sending the game to OT.

The Gauchos went up by 5 with 2 minutes remaining in overtime . Our starters were gassed. We dropped behind by 7 with just a minute to go. And that was the difference when the buzzer sounded with us losing 88-81 in OT. A great effort against a formidable team, but that effort sapped our players at the end when we needed steam.

C Don Seals led us offensively with 22 points. PF Derrick LaLane had 14 points and 7 boards. SG Terrell Alexander scored 13 points. PG Aki Mosley hit for 11 points and also had 5 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals. PF/C Curtis Pearson also scored 11 points. For UC Santa Barbara, PF John Hart had 26 points and 17 rebounds and SF Steven Nichols scored 25 points plus pulled down 8 boards. The Gauchos scored 22 more points than us on 2nd chance points and out-rebounded us 44-28.