Cal Poly looking for first Big West win after 89-82 loss to Long Beach State
Looking for its first Big West Conference win of the young season, Cal Poly men’s basketball team showed competitiveness against Long Beach State, with spurts of accurate shooting, but ultimately fell 89-82 on Thursday.
Diving for loose balls, making offensive runs, and matching the quickness and athleticism of Long Beach State (10-5, 2-1 Big West), the Mustangs (4-11, 0-3) held their own throughout much of the game at Mott Athletics Center.
Early in the second half, the Mustangs got out to a 7-point lead, their biggest margin of the contest. But the 49ers responded as Cal Poly struggled to find rhythm on the offensive end for a good portion of the final stretch.
“We really shared the ball and moved the ball, and what we’ve been fighting for all year is getting more movement side to side and top side and downhill and getting guys to shoot with confidence,” said Cal Poly Coach John Smith. “The bad, though, is we didn’t execute under the 5-minute mark when we had a chance to secure this game. And that has been the Achilles heel of this team.”
Cal Poly got a burst at the end of the first half with some sharp-shooting from 6-foot-9 forward Paul Bizimana, who drained some late 3-pointers to bring Cal Poly to within a point deficit at 38-37 at the half. Bizimana finished with 19 points and was 5-for-8 on 3-pointers.
But Cal Poly had trouble finding the bucket down the stretch, missing several shots in the last 10 minutes of the contest, while giving up dunks and layups. Cal Poly put the 49ers on the line 39 times, and Long Beach State converted 25 of those free throws.
Mustangs without key player
The Mustangs were playing without their second-leading scorer in Jarred Hyder, who averages 11.1 points per game. Hyder was out with an injury.
“We came out and fought and there were moments where we showed what Cal Poly basketball is, moving the ball, playing with confidence,” said Kobe Sanders, who tallied 14 points and a career-high nine assists. “And there were moments were we didn’t show enough fight. It’s about playing for 40 minutes and finding out ways to win games down the stretch.”
Led this season by Sanders, a 6-foot-8 senior guard from San Diego who is averaging 18.5 points through 15 games, the Mustangs got a boost from freshman Quentin Jones, who had a career-high 22 points.
But Long Beach State took advantage of turnovers to create transition baskets, with some two-handed dunks by Aboubacar Traore, an Ivory Coast native who poured in 30 points on 14 of 17 shooting and 14 of 18 from the line.
Sanders, who played 40 minutes, was often double-teamed and the defense keyed in on him with Hyder out, Smith said.
“Having to fight guys all the way up the court, it just slows down the thought process when you’re that fatigued,” Smith said of the 49ers’ defense on Sanders.
Direction of season, program
Smith also said that Cal Poly will need to play better defense to win games moving forward in the Big West.
“You can’t win games trading baskets,” Smith said. “Defense is all heart. I can teach the best schemes and rotations, but if you don’t have it in you to physically wall up in this league, you’re going to get punished.”
Smith said that he likes the direction of Cal Poly’s program, despite a losing record this season.
“Long Beach Coach Dan Monson paid us a compliment before the game, saying ‘John, you’ve built this program the right way. You develop kids and you guys compete,’” Smith said.
But Smith acknowledged a young team that’s inexperienced will have growing pains.
“They have to learn how to fight and be competitive against older guys,” Smith said. “But I like where we’re going. We’ll try to get some older guys in the transfer portal next year. But they have to fit what we’re doing, fit this community, academically and what we’re doing. But we’ll fight and we have 17 more of these (conference games this season).
Smith said his goal for the team is to “make it to the tournament.”
Sanders said that in his four years at Cal Poly this is “the most connected team we’ve had and it’s just about finding a way to win.”
The Mustangs next face UCSB (7-6, 0-3) at home on Saturday at 7 p.m.
This story was originally published January 4, 2024 at 11:13 PM.
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