Cal Poly basketball stuns Stanford 97-90 for fifth win — already more than all of last year

Cal Poly’s new-look men’s basketball team continued its sudden turnaround Saturday with its most surprising win so far, a 97-90 upset of Stanford on the road for the Mustangs’ first win over a Power 4 conference team in 12 years.

This from a team that’s coming off a season in which they won a mere four games and went 0-20 in conference play.

Nine games into the season, they’ve already surpassed that win total with a 5-4 start, under the leadership of new head coach Mike DeGeorge, who’s in his first year in San Luis Obispo after arriving fro Colorado Mesa University.

It’s also Cal Poly’s first victory against an Atlantic Coast Conference program and its first win against Stanford since Nov. 27, 1976, according to Cal Poly Athletics.

The Cardinal, which dropped to 6-2 on the season, are in their first year in the ACC.

The Mustangs secured the win by flipping a 9-point first half deficit into a 7-point win, thanks to huge second half that saw them put up 63 points at Maples Pavilion.

Forward Owen Koonce led the way with 30 points and seven rebounds. Senior guard Issac Jessup scored 21 points and shot five of eight from 3-point range.

With 4:36 left in the game, Jessup knocked down his third consecutive 3-pointer to put Cal Poly up 82-80.

Jessup had four 3-pointers in the second half of the game.

They did not give up the lead the rest of the game.

Competitive non-conference play

The Mustangs have had one of their most difficult non-conference schedules in recent years. The team played multiple “buy-games” where larger programs pay an opponent to play against them and be on the schedule.

Cal Poly lost by single digits to Arizona State and University of San Francisco. Against Saint Mary’s, the Mustangs were down by fewer than 10 points in the second half.

The team picked up wins over Seattle University, Eastern Washington, Grambling State, Menlo College and now Stanford.

High-scoring games

In eight of their nine games to start the season, Cal Poly has scored over 73 points.

Its matchup against the Cardinal was no different as the team scored almost 100 points.

The impressive start leaves Cal Poly with momentum going into the start of Big West play on the road at UC Davis on Dec. 5.

This story was originally published November 30, 2024 at 10:51 PM.