Cal Poly Mustangs (13-9, 6-3) @ Wyoming Cowboys (11-11, 4-5)
Mustang News
MUSTANGS WIN STREAK SHATTERED
The Mustangs initial focus was to draw fouls, primarily aiming at the Cowboys’ high scoring (15.6 ppg) freshman center Dennis Laws. By pounding the ball inside and driving and cutting down low across the key, the strategy worked at getting Wyoming saddled with fouls in the first 4 minutes with 2 starters forced to the bench, although Laws committed just one. But Cal Poly led by just a single point at that point. Laws did draw his 2nd foul with 8:43 remaining in the half. But the Mustangs’ failure to sink a high percentage of their free throws plus Wyoming hitting 3’s meant the Cowboys held a 19-16 lead then. Subs C Earl Bailey, PF DJ Morse, and SF Lane Lynch combined for 14 points and led Cal Poly to a 30-24 advantage with 4:19 left before the end of the half. But Wyoming rallied to take a 40-36 lead at the break.
Three early 3’s by Wyoming in the 2nd half left the Mustangs trailing by 13 with 17 minutes remaining. Cal Poly’s efforts to catch up were foiled by a series of mistakes and turnovers. With 13 minutes to go power outage plunged the Dome of Doom into darkness. Emergency lighting came on that, while providing some illumination, also created an eeriness. The game was suspended leaving a question on Mustangs’ fans if they could come back when power was restored with a renewed energy that would allow them to come back from their 56-47 deficit. Could they resurrect their shutdown defense that had carried them to 5 straight victories, but had eluded them thus far against the Cowboys?
When play was resumed, it was obvious that Cal Poly was being more aggressive defensively. But D without the ability to score and frequent turnovers (21 in the game) kept the Mustangs from cutting into the lead. Then as time was running short they had to throw up shots from beyond the arc. Hitting 3’s has been a weak part of the game for the Mustangs and it was no different against Wyoming where Cal Poly connected on just 4 of 20 shots. Wyoming added a loss to the Mustangs record by a final score of 79-69.
SF Louis Taylor topped the scoring for Cal Poly with 14 points. PG Jon Overton had 11 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals. C Earl Bailey scored 10 points and grabbed 4 boards. But the SG position for the Mustangs was impotent tonight where 4 players combined for just 2 points. Cal Poly held Wyoming’s C Jeff Laws to just 6 points, but the rest of the team dropped in nearly 50% of their shots (including 10 of 22 of their 3’s).
“We let Wyoming control the final 24 minutes of the game. Well actually we didn’t ‘let them’ because I have to give the Cowboys the credit for simply outplaying us. While we didn’t play badly, we were unable to wrest back control. Once they got ahead by 10 points, they just held us off and never let us get a run going. Our win streak may have been broken, but I’m confident that our guys will go out and try their best to create a new one,” said Coach Fred Aura.
Only 2 of the 5 teams that were tied for 1st place in the conference standings won, so now the Mustangs are in a 3-way tie for 3rd place.