Cal Poly played small-ball basketball in a big way in Thursday’s 79-63 victory over Hawaii in Mott Athletics Center in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
A crowd of 1,756 saw the Mustangs use a second-half surge to end a nine-game losing streak against the Rainbow Warriors.
The ’Bows took a 55-54 lead on Gytis Nemeiksa’s baseline jumper with 9:20 to play.
But the Mustangs would control the rest of the game, scoring the next 11 points to seize a 65-55 lead. Owen Koonce, who missed his three shots of the game, hit a 3 from the top of the key, scored off a stutter-step move, and arced a jumper over 6-foot-9 Harry Rouhliadeff during that 11-0 run. Koonce scored all 20 of his game-high points after the intermission.
The Mustangs scored 25 of the game’s final 32 points. They converted their final eight field-goal attempts.
“Disappointed,” UH coach Eran Ganot said in a radio interview. “Give them credit. I thought they were great. They came out (in the second half) and out-hustled us, out-scrapped us.”
Under Mike DeGeorge, who was hired as head coach last spring, the Mustangs befuddled the ’Bows with a freelance lineup in which no starter was taller than 6-foot-5.
In the position-less offense, 6-5 graduate students Koonce and Mac Riniker took turns playing the Mustangs’ version of center.
In the second half against the taller ’Bows — who started two 6-10 players and a 6-9 forward — the Mustangs had an 18-14 advantage in the paint and parlayed UH’s eight turnovers into 16 points. The ’Bows did not produce any points off turnovers in the second half.
“We need to dominate the glass,” Ganot said of being tied with 31 rebounds. “We need to dominate the paint. And we didn’t do that. … The paint and the size advantage is only ours if we take advantage of it. They played bigger than we did.”
The ’Bows fell to 13-10 overall and into seventh place at 5-7 in the Big West. Eight of the 11 Big West teams qualify for the league’s postseason tournament in Henderson, Nev. The ’Bows continue their two-game road trip against UC Santa Barbara on Saturday at 5 p.m.
The Mustangs improved to 9-15 and 3-9 with their third victory in the past four games.
“We didn’t come out of the gates well in either half again,” Ganot said of the 11-5 deficit in the first half and the ’Bows’ missing their first four shots after the intermission. “We thought we kind of fought through that. And they spread us out pretty good.”
The Mustangs entered with the nation’s quickest offense at 14.3 seconds per possession. On Thursday, they spaced their offense, and worked patiently for open 3s or clear drives into the lane. They also packed their defense, making it tough for the ’Bows to penetrate.
“Basically this game came down to who’s going to win the advantage: the small ball or the big ball,” Ganot said. “They make it tough to get it inside. But we surely could get them on the boards and at the paint, and they won that. When we got hit in the mouth, they extended. I felt we broke through some of those things. You always hear us say the experience in the past will help us moving forward. It didn’t tonight. That’s kind of been a mark of our team. Here we are in February and it’s still inconsistent.”
BIG WEST MEN
Conference Overall
W L Pct. GB W L
UC Irvine 10 1 .909 — 20 3
UC San Diego 9 2 .818 1 19 4
CS Northridge 8 4 .667 21
⁄2 16 7
UC Riverside 8 4 .667 21
⁄2 15 9
UCSB 7 5 .583 31
⁄2 15 8
UC Davis 6 5 .545 4 12 10
Hawaii 5 7 .417 51
⁄2 13 10
CSU Bakersfield 4 8 .333 61
⁄2 10 14
Long Beach St. 3 8 .273 7 7 16
Cal Poly 3 9 .250 71
⁄2 9 15
CS Fullerton 1 11 .083 91
⁄2 6 18
Thursday
Cal Poly 79, Hawaii 63
UC Santa Barbara 81, CS Bakersfield 75
UC San Diego 91, UC Riverside 71
CS Northridge 82, CS Fullerton 63
UC Davis 73, Long Beach State 65
Saturday
Hawaii at UC Santa Barbara, 5 p.m.
Cal State Northridge at Long Beach State
UC Davis at Cal State Fullerton
Cal State Bakersfield at UC Riverside
UC San Diego at UC Irvine
CAL POLY 79, HAWAII 63
RAINBOW WARRIORS (13-10, 5-7 Big West)
NO. PLAYER MIN FG-A 3PT FT-A O-DREB TREB PF A TO BLK STL PTS
32 Christensen 22 3-5 0-0 3-4 1-3 4 2 0 1 0 0 9
14 Rouhliadeff 22 3-6 0-2 0-1 2-2 4 0 0 2 0 0 6
2 Beattie 29 2-6 0-1 1-2 3-2 5 1 2 2 0 2 5
30 Hunkin-Claytor 20 2-4 0-0 0-0 0-3 3 1 3 2 0 0 4
34 Jacobs, Akira 18 1-5 1-5 1-2 0-2 2 3 0 2 0 0 4
5 Nemeikša 16 5-9 1-2 2-3 1-2 3 3 1 0 0 0 13
22 Rapp 22 4-8 0-3 2-2 0-5 5 3 2 2 0 3 10
00 Williams 24 3-7 3-6 0-0 0-1 1 2 0 1 0 0 9
4 Greene 18 1-2 1-2 0-0 0-1 1 0 1 1 0 0 3
20 Palm 6 0-1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
6 Obasohan 1 0-1 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
8 Economou 1 0-1 0-0 0-0 1-0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
10 Robeson 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TEAM 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-2 2 0 0 1 0 0 0
Totals 200 24-55 6-22 9-14 8-23 31 15 9 14 0 5 63
Percentages 43.6 27.3 64.3
MUSTANGS (9-15, 3-9 Big West)
NO. PLAYER MIN FG-A 3PT FT-A O-DREB TREB PF A TO BLK STL PTS
11 Koonce 27 7-13 1-4 5-6 1-2 3 4 2 2 0 1 20
00 Hyder 34 7-13 4-9 0-0 1-3 4 1 1 1 0 2 18
40 Jessup 33 3-8 3-7 0-0 2-4 6 2 4 1 0 0 9
5 Vasilic 19 3-6 1-4 0-0 0-2 2 1 0 1 0 0 7
2 Riniker 14 2-2 0-0 0-0 0-3 3 4 3 0 0 2 4
15 Price Jr 19 4-5 1-1 0-1 1-6 7 1 0 2 0 2 9
9 Bandelj 32 3-6 0-3 2-2 0-3 3 0 4 1 1 0 8
23 Menzies 9 1-2 1-1 0-0 0-1 1 1 0 0 0 0 3
14 Ward 11 0-3 0-2 1-2 0-1 1 3 0 1 0 0 1
6 Bizimana 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
10 Spears 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TEAM 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 1-0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 200 30-58 11-31 8-11 6-25 31 17 14 9 1 7 79
Percentages 51.7 35.5 72.7
Halftime — Hawaii 35, Cal Poly 34
Technical fouls — none. Officials — Pete Larson, Darron George, Roland Simmons. A —
1,756.
