College Roundup: Taylor, Cal Poly maul Menlo in basketball rout

Will Taylor had 19 points and 13 rebounds to lead Cal Poly’s men’s basketball team to a 91-58 victory over Menlo College on Wednesday night at Mott Gym.

The Mustangs (7-3) won for the fifth time in the past six games and tied the best Division I start in school history with the nonleague win.

Taylor set a career high in scoring and tied his best mark in rebounding, leading all five starters in double figures. David Hanson scored 16 points, former Morro Bay High standout Dylan Royer scored12 in a starting role and Drake U’U and Amaurys Fermin had 10 each. Fermin, the Big West Conference leader in assists, had seven assists, and U’u had six.

ChaRunn Jones led the NAIA Oaks (2-10) with 17 points. Tim Tatum added 10, and Alex Engel, a former high school teammate of Royer’s, added nine points, three rebounds and three assists in a starting role.

Cal Poly outrebounded Menlo 45-24 and forced 15 turnovers while committing only six.

The Mustangs led just 29-25 with 6:57 left in the first half but then ran off 10 points in a row. They were up 44-31 at intermission and coasted in the second half.

Cal Poly has held seven of its 10 opponents to fewer than 60 points and entered the game allowing only 56 points per game. The 33-point margin of victory is the largest by the Mustangs in Joe Callero’s three season as head coach and the 91 points was the most by the Mustangs since they scored 102 at Hawaii two years ago.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Long Island 69, Cal Poly 61

The Mustangs’ Kristina Santiago had another big game with 29 points and 15 rebounds, but the Mustangs dropped to 3-6 with the nonleague road loss in New York.

Long Island (9-2) made 9 of 18 from 3-point range while Cal Poly was 1 for 8.

Long Island’s Ashley Palmer, who led all scorers with 31 points, made 3 of 7 3-pointers and also had 10 rebounds. Three other Long Island players were in double figures with She’tiarra Pledger scoring 12, Marika Sprow 11 and Kiara Evans 10.

Kayla Griffin was the only other Mustang to score in double figures with 10 points.

VOLLEYBALL

Keddy earns All-American status

The accolades keep coming for Cal Poly volleyball junior Jennifer Keddy, who was named an All-American honorable mention by the American Volleyball Coaches Association. The honor comes a week after the middle hitter landed a spot on the AVCA all-West Region team.

Keddy completed her junior season with the Big West Conference Player of the Year award after averaging a conference-best 4.06 kills and producing a hitting percentage of .339. Her 4.85 points per set ranked first in the Big West and 22nd in the nation.

WATER POLO

Cougars honored

Both the Cuesta College men’s and women’s programs had 11 players each named to the all-Western State Conference teams, in addition to some receiving regional and national recognition.

Eric Marsh repeated as the conference’s men’s player of the year and made the All-America and all-Southern California Region first teams. Other Cuesta players named all-conference, all-region and All-America were Thomas Ross and Luka Vukomanovic.

Matt Giancanelli, Dragan Dincic and Derrick Graham also earned first-team conference honors, while Giancanelli landed in the regional second team and Dincic received a regional honorable mention.

Austin McCall, Paul Davis and Cody Hughson landed on the conference’s second team, and Cody Lathouwers and Spencer Silva were conference honorable mentions. Coach John Marsh, who guided the Cougars to their 25th conference title and their 33rd straight postseason berth, was named the conference’s coach of the year.

On the women’s side, Alexandria Bernard also repeated as the WSC player of the year to go along with selections to the all-Southern California Region and All-America first teams. The sophomore led the state in steals with 111 and her 65 goals and 40 assists were in the state’s top 10. Alex O’Connor was the other Cougar who made the all-regional list, as she was named to the second team. O’Connor also was named to the conference’s first team, joining teammates Erin Hasenkamp, Carly Glogovac and Loren Kasenberg.

Julia Tatarian, Amanda Brown and Bailey Kelley were selected to the conference’s second team, and Haylie Fry, Erin Casey and Michaela Billingsley all received honorable mentions.

The Cougar women finished second in the WSC and missed the playoffs for the fourth straight time.