SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

[PointGuard]

1st Assistant Coach C. J. Costa

A few days ago, John Gibbs and Donald Blackmon got into an argument and began shoving each other around. It was broken up by a couple teammates. Coach Aura got them both into his office and counselled them. He felt it went pretty well, but I'm noticing a deterioration in their relationship with the rest of the team. Hopefully we can turn that around.

[PointGuard]

Cal Poly Mustangs (1-4) @ Binghamton Bearcats (1-4)

The Bearcats jumped out to a small lead and held onto it through the first 10 minutes but then we reeled them back in and by the end of the half the game was tied at 37-37.

We forged ahead in the 2nd half and led by 5 points with 11 minutes to play. But then we went scoreless for 5 minutes during which Binghamton went ahead by 6. We began scoring again but couldn’t stop the Bearcats and they beat us 75-68. We played well except for those 5 scoreless minutes which was enough to stick us with our 5th road loss without a victory.

SG Dean Plowman hit for 20 points and PG Aki Mosley hit 6 of 7 from 3 point distance to score 18 points.

[PointGuard]

Maine Black Bears (3-3) @ Cal Poly Mustangs (1-5)

We grabbed a lead after 2 minutes which we never relinquished. At the break we were up 38-32 and then steadily added to that lead throughout the 2nd half. The final score was 79-63 in our favor.

Our starters hit 11 of 15 of their 3-point attempts. PG Aki Mosley had 22 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, SG Dean Plowman put in 20 points plus had 6 rebounds and 3 assists, and SF Jason Fleming added 11 points. We totally dominated the boards (41-29).

[PointGuard]

Janeka Aura

We watched Georgetown down Manhattan tonight. Malik had his best game of the season thus far with 12 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists.

That goes together with Omari’s last D-League game in which he pulled down 17 rebounds. Fred said that’s the kind of performance that will resonate with the Memphis Grizzlies and give Omari a chance to be called up if there’s an injury on the Grizzlies.

[PointGuard]

Texas Southern Tigers (5-4) @ Cal Poly Mustangs (2-5)

Benny Tamago, fan and local realtor

The Mustangs have won both of their home games this season. Unfortunately they’ve lost all 5 of their away games. Freshman Aki Mosley has played surprisingly well, scoring well and doing a good job of directing the team from the point.

Cal Poly opened a quick early lead with SG Dean Plowman hitting a series of early baskets. They shot well and had very few turnovers. By the time the half finished the Mustangs held a 39-26 advantage.

Texas Southern was never able to put on any sort of serious run in the 2nd half and Cal Poly came away with an impressive 75-58 win over a team that was favored coming into the game.

SG Dean Plowman had 19 pints, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and a block. PG Aki Mosley put in 12 points but also had 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals. PF Denny Grove scored 11 and reserve guard Terrell Alexander hit for 10 points.

If the Mustangs keep playing this way, attendance at their games should improve.

[PointGuard]

Cal Poly Mustangs (3-5) @ Colgate Raiders (0-9)

Donald Blackmon has been experiencing soreness in his back but will play tonight.

We shot horribly in the first half, hitting just 29% of our shots from the field. Fortunately, the Raiders made 10 turnovers which allowed us to keep close and we only trailed by a 29-27 score at the end of the half.

We scored the first 10 points of the 2nd half as our defense was rock-solid. With 12 minutes left we were up 42-30. We expanded our lead to 17 with 3 minutes to go. Colgate then went on a run since we had a tough team putting the ball in the hoops in the final 3 minutes. But there was never a concern and we won our first game on the road this season by a final score of 63-54. We now are the proud possessors of a 3-game win streak.

Reserve PG John Gibbs scored 13 points and SG Dean Plowman put in 10 points. Our bench scored 29 of our 63 points.

During the latter stages of the game Jarrod Hill strained his hamstring and is likely to miss games for 2 weeks.

[PointGuard]

Rob Benchley, Athletic Director

Pre-conference play has now concluded. We’ll begin our 20-game Big West Conference schedule by hosting Cal State-Bakersfield the day after Christmas.

Team:

We finished our pre-conference schedule with a 4-5 record. We averaged 62.7 ppg while allowing our opponents just 61.3 ppg. We don’t shoot or rebound well, make many assists, are horrible at making blocks or stealing the ball, but paradoxically our defense has been good (33rd best in the nation on points allowed to opponents). Our NET ranking is 289th.

Only two Big West teams have records over .500. Cal State Fullerton has a 6-3 record and UC-Santa Barbara is 5-4.

Player leaders:

PPG: Aki Mosley—12.1 ppg; Dean Plowman—12.0 ppg; Jason Fleming—8.2 ppg; Denny Grove—7.2 ppg; Roland Holland—5.1 ppg; Donald Blackmon—4.0 ppg.

RPG: Roland Holland—5.2 rpg; Denny Grove—5.0 rpg; Dean Plowman—4.7 rpg; Jason Fleming—3.6 rpg.

APG: Aki Mosley—4.4 apg; Dean Plowman—2.2 apg; Denny Grove—1.7 apg; Donald Blackmon—1.6 apg.

[PointGuard]

Cal State-Bakersfield Roadrunners (4-5, 0-0) @ Cal Poly Mustangs (4-5, 0-0)

Cal State Bakersfield is located nearer to us than any other team in the Big West. So a sizeable number of Roadrunners’ fans have made the 2-1/2 drive to cheer on their team. Senior guard Jimmy Myles is averaging 14.8 ppg and 4.0 apg for the Roadrunners. But PF Eddy Toton is probably their best player…he’s averaging 11.1 ppg and 7.2 rpg. Even though this is a home game for us, the Roadrunners are 8 point favorites.

The offenses of both teams overwhelmed the defenses throughout the entire first half. Both teams basically traded baskets. Both teams hit over 50% of shots from all over the court. We held a slim 46-44 lead at the end of the half.

Even though we tried to tighten up defensively, the 2nd half was pretty much a rerun of the first half. Both teams gunned away and the lead shifted back and forth. But in the final 5 minutes we finally were able to open a small lead and hold onto it. Then in the final minutes the Roadrunners were forced to repeatedly foul, and we sunk our free throws to move out to a 95-85 victory. We knocked down 50% of our FGA’s and 42% of our 3PA’s. We also got to the line 37 times and sunk 31 free throws. We held a 37-26 rebounding advantage by made 18 turnovers compared to just 12 by CSU Bakersfield.

PG Aki Mosley led our scoring with 22 points plus he had 7 assists and 3 steals. SF Jared Fleming drilled in 21 points. SG Dean Plowman hit 5 of his 6 3-point attempts and scored 17 points. PF Denny Grove had 9 points, 4 assists, and 8 boards. Cal State Bakersfield’s SG Earl Smith scored 26 points.

[PointGuard]

Cal Poly Mustangs (5-5, 1-0) @ Hawaii Rainbow Warriors (5-5, 1-0)

KCPR—Cal Poly radio station (excerpts of the broadcast)

*Every year this is the team’s favorite “road” trip. And I’m jazzed to have been sent over here with the team to let you know how the Mustangs fare. I’m sure you’re wondering…so yeah, I did make it to the beach this afternoon for some fantastic surfin’ and am still super-stoked. The waves were off the hook. Yeah, I had my share of wipeouts and even got ragdolled a couple times, but there were some great sets. Sorry y’all couldn’t have been out there with me.
*The Rainbow Warriors are a strong scoring team, averaging 76.4 ppg and they hit a high percentage of their shots. Hawaii has a lot of talented players. Their scoring is spread out amongst 9 players although most of their points are scored from outside. Hawaii is an experienced team with 4 of their 5 starters being seniors. The Rainbow Warriors are prohibitive favorites in this contest. Hawaii really supports their teams so there’s a bunch of rabid fans here tonight. So our Mustangs may have a 4-game win streak going, but they’ll have to be at the top of their game to come out on top in this away game.
*Wow! The shots they be fallin’ tonight. Both teams dropping ‘em in from all over and almost refusing to miss.
*Plowman fires a pass out to Grove who drives down the lane and pulls up for a short jumper. It’s off the mark but he was fouled by Hawaii’s Tim Thompson. Denny Grove toes the line for two shots. His first one bounces away off the back of the rim. He takes his time and now puts up the 2nd which drops cleanly through the hoops putting Cal Poly on top by a point.
*Fleming steps into the passing lane and picks off the pass. He drives down court. A sizzly flashy pass over to Plowman for an uncontested layup that puts the Mustangs ahead by 6 after just 4 minutes of play. That brought our bench up and off their feet.
*Both teams have ratcheted up their defenses.
*Blackman was fouled on that shot and will go to the line for 2 shots. He drops both in. That’s Cal Poly’s first points in over 4 minutes.
*Green’s free and he sinks a 3 to put Hawaii on top 20-18 with just over 10 minutes left in the half.
*Hawaii’s coach face to face with the ref on that foul call. Carson makes both ends of the 1-and-1 making it 24-20 in favor of the Mustangs. We’re keeping in this game by feasting at the charity stripe.
*Fleming lofts up a shot from way outside and it’s IN! That ties the game at 37-37 with 2 minutes til halftime.
*And we go to halftime with Hawaii on top 39-37. The Rainbow Warrior have been outshooting the Mustangs but Cal Poly has scored 12 more points from the free throw line. The Mustangs have to get back to hitting their shots like they were doing early in the game. Denny Grove leads the Mustangs scoring with 9 points while David Keating has scored 10 for Hawaii.
*Nice block by Denny Grove. So we reach the first media timeout of the 2nd half with Hawaii ahead 44-37. The Mustangs shooting woes are continuing. They have yet to score after nearly 5 minutes of play in this half. Coach Aura was right in his players faces during the timeout.
*Fleming drains the jumper from 15 feet for Cal Poly’s first field goal of the 2nd half and cutting Hawaii’s lead to 44-40 with 13:36 to go.
*Sloppy play by the Mustangs. Another errant pass leads to a thunderous dunk on the break and expands Hawaii’s lead to 58-45.
*The Mustangs just can’t buy a basket. Hawaii’s pouring it on and Cal Poly is unable to answer.
*The buzzer sounds mercifully ending the game with Cal Poly on the short end of a 77-53 score. You just can’t win if you only hit 28% of your shots from the field and 18% of your 3’s. The Mustangs also made 17 turnovers.
*PF Denny Grove scored 12, SF Dean Plowman contributed 11, and SF Jason Fleming finished with 10. But the Mustangs got 0 points from their point guards as Aki Mosley and John Gibbs were a combined 0 for 16 from the field.
*From here Cal Poly flies back to the mainland to take on the Long Beach State 49ers two days from now. Let’s hope they find their shooting eyes by then.

[PointGuard]

Cal Poly Mustangs (5-6, 1-1) @ Long Beach State 49ers (5-5, 1-0)

It took us nearly 5 minutes to score due to lots of turnovers and missed shots. We hit a few shots late In the half that improved our shooting to a still poor 39% but it was our 14 turnovers that put us in as much as a 12 point hole in the first half. We trailed by a 32-25 score at the end of the half. Plowman, Fleming, and Holland each scored 7 points so the 3 of them accounted for 21 of our 25 points.

The 2nd half was worse than the first since our defense fell apart. The result was a 76-55 pasting.

Our only player to score in double figures was SG Dean Plowman who popped in 18 points. PG Aki Mosley’s shooting slump continued as he went 0 for 11.