Cal Poly Mustangs (0-0) @ Indiana State Sycamores (0-0) [Preseason NIT Tournament]
Coach Fred Aura
We may be in a little over our heads to take on the Sycamores on the road. A good test, nonetheless. And being here, sometimes I feel like Larry Bird is still going to take the court against us. Fortunately that’s not going to be the case, but Indiana State has some very good players, particularly PG Bob Driggers.
Having to try to juggle using just 7 players is definitely a big challenge for me since I prefer to run about 10 players in and out of games to keep fresh legs on the court. It’s also going to be rough on those 7 guys. They’re going to have to dig deep since there will be times when they’re exhausted and still on the court. Normally I have the team deploy a full court press a fair amount, but will need to cut down on that this season so as not to wear down my guys too much. Our walk-ons haven’t shown yet that they’re really ready to handle tough opposition. So if any get into the game, it will be for very short periods of time. We’ll see how it goes, though.
The first half was extremely close the entire way. We held a small lead a good portion of the time but the Sycamores hit a 3 at the buzzer to take a 45-44 lead to the locker room. My 7 guys did a good job, out-rebounding Indiana State but not shooting as well as the Sycamores. Terrell Alexander threw down 13 points and Don Smith contributed 12 points and 6 rebounds.
We came out flat in the 2nd half and Aki Mosley was charged with his 3rd foul with 18:23 to go and Charles Gordon picked up his 3rd foul 2-1/2 minutes later. But our guys doggedly hung with the Sycamores until Indiana State went on a 10-0 run midway through the half. We chipped away and got within a single point with 4-1/2 minutes to go. Trailing 77-75 with 59 seconds remaining, I called a time out and set up a pick and roll play. The play ran well but we missed the shot. Indiana State missed a shot and we got the ball back with 41 seconds left. We took another time out with 33 seconds on the clock. We set up to isolate Charles Gordon for a shot but the pass to him was intercepted and the Sycamores scored on the subsequent fast break. Gordon drilled a 3 on our possession, but the Sycamores were able to run out the last few seconds and beat us 79-78. I was proud of how we stuck with them and nearly pulled off the upset and think we may have won this one if Aki Mosley hadn’t had an off night offensively (0 for 8 from the field and 0 for 2 from the free throw line, but he has the tendency to be really hot or really cold). Our 7 scholarship players played the entire game with each recording between 23 and 36 minutes of playing time.
Both SF Charles Gordon and SG Terrell Alexander scored 22 points with Gordon recording 7 rebounds and Alexander getting 5 boards and 5 assists. C Don Seals had a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Bob Driggins, Indiana State’s PG, had 13 points and 12 assists.