Cal Poly eliminated at Big West tournament after UCSB comes back from 10-point deficit
After playing their biggest game of the season on Tuesday and leading for much of the way Thursday, Cal Poly ran out of magic at the Big West tournament, falling to UC Santa Barbara 64-54.
The No. 10 Mustangs took a 6-point advantage into the half after leading by as much as 10, only to see the No. 2 Gauchos wrestle back control of the game in the second half.
Led by Big West MVP Ajay Mitchell with 24 points, UCSB outscored Cal Poly 38-22 over the last 20 minutes to help the Gauchos advance to the semifinals at Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nevada.
Brantly Stevenson led Cal Poly on the offensive side with 18 points.
The Mustangs got out to a great start, thanks to the hot shooting of Ali Koroma, who had 12 points in the first half. Koroma finished the game with 17.
But after coming out of the locker room up 32-26, Cal Poly turned the ball over on consecutive possessions while UCSB scored 5 points, narrowing the lead to 1.
That shifted momentum, and Cal Poly was never really able to recover.
The Gauchos took their first lead in about 22 minutes when they went up 38-37 at the 14-minute mark, before widening it to 46-41 at 10:00.
UCSB built its advantage to double digits in the final minutes, putting the game out of reach.
Following the game against Long Beach State where the Mustangs put up a remarkable 88 points and shot 50% from the three-point line, the team was unable to sustain the hot shooting, going only 1-12 from distance.
Cal Poly advanced to the tournament’s second round after beating No. 7 Long Beach State 88-68 on Tuesday breaking a program-worst 18-game losing streak. In 12 of the 18 games the team lost, the Mustangs either led or tied with five minutes remaining.
In the end, the game finished in much the same way as Cal Poly’s other two losses to UCSB, 62-57 at home on Jan. 7 and 68-62 in Santa Barbara on Feb. 2.
