Cal Poly basketball finds its formula in 79-63 win over Hawaii

There’s one play the Mustangs have been trying to master all season called the “Gortat screen,” which is named after former NBA center Marcin Gortat.

The play has the big man seal off his defender at the basket and open up a lane to the rim for his offensive player to finish. However, Cal Poly wasn’t able to execute this concept for much of the season.

In the Mustangs’ 79-63 win Hawaii at Mott Athletic Center on Thursday, something clicked.

As Owen Koonce weaved his way to the basket late in the second half, his longtime teammate from Colorado Mesa and now Cal Poly, Ethan Menzies, sealed his defender and created a gap for Koonce to finish at the rim. The bench erupted in cheers as Koonce laid the ball in.

That play might not stick out to the average fan, but its a sign of how far the Mustangs have come.

In the team’s first season under head coach Mike DeGeorge, the Mustangs had a promising non-conference showing where they competed against Power 4 level programs and beat Stanford on the road. However, injuries and a difficult schedule contributed to a nine-game skid from December to January.

During the losing streak, the Mustangs were approaching a daunting record. The team had lost 46 consecutive games, a record dating back to the 2022-23 season under former head coach John Smith. The pressure mounted as the losing streak began to go viral among college basketball fans.

The Mustangs ended the streak in a 78-69 win over Long Beach State. Then they followed it up with a win on the road against Cal State Bakersfield.

“We kept saying once that first one falls, the rest are going to come,” said Koonce, who finished with his ninth 20-plus-point performance on the year. “I feel like this group, we’re just sticking together and sticking with what we’re supposed to be doing, executing our concepts, and it’s just finally coming along.”

After falling to UC Riverside in its previous game, the team returned home looking to regain some momentum.

From the start, the Mustangs played with their notorious pace and jumped out to an early lead, only to see the Rainbow Warriors fight back and take a one-point lead into halftime.

Hawaii is a big and physical team led by 6-foot-10, 265-pound center Tanner Christensen, who scored the go-ahead bucket with 30 seconds left in the first half. It’s the exact type of team Cal Poly has struggled to guard because of their size disadvantage.

The team’s solution is to put graduate forward Mac Riniker on opposing team’s centers, but he ran into foul trouble. Fouling is nothing new for Cal Poly as Riniker is first in Division I in total personal fouls (96). Koonce also dealt with foul trouble but stayed in the game.

Despite Riniker playing his second fewest minutes of the season, the team held Christensen to nine points and four rebounds. The defensive game plan was to pressure ball handlers to make the pass into Christensen tough. When he did catch the ball, the defense collapsed and tried to get a steal.

While the Mustangs still rank last in points allowed, the team has found some success on defense in their wins. According to DeGeorge, the team is employing more switching so players don’t get as tired chasing opponents off screens and to maintain good position.

Offensively, they’ve maintained their pace and use their speed to generate advantages before opponents are set.

“I would agree that our formula is getting a little clearer in terms of this is what we need to do to understand game plans that teams are putting out there and getting more effective at attacking them,” DeGeorge said.

Cal Poly’s Big West Tournament hopes

With the win over Hawaii, Cal Poly stands at a 3-9 conference record. On Thursday night, UC Davis beat Long Beach State, which dropped them to 3-9, but the Mustangs hold the tiebreaker.

Only the top eight teams out of 11 make it to the conference tournament in Henderson, Nevada. The Mustangs are currently ninth and one game behind Cal State Bakersfield.

Fortunately, the Mustangs have played the majority of their games against the top half of teams in the conference like UC Irvine and UC Davis. The team still has one more matchup each against UC San Diego, CSUN, UC Riverside and UC Santa Barbara.

The Mustangs have yet to face off against the bottom team in the Big West, Cal State Fullerton, but they will next Thursday on the road.

“That’s our goal for the rest of the season,” Hyder said. “Just stack wins and get us in a position where we’re making that tournament, and then we know we’re a dangerous team once it comes to that. You see how we’re rolling now, so the later it gets in the season, the more dangerous we’re going to become.”

For many players, this is their last year of eligibility. For the group that came over with DeGeorge from Colorado Mesa, he’s been with some of them for six years.

“‘It’s kind of crazy to think about how long we’ve been with those guys,” DeGeorge said. “It’s certainly great to have them here, and they’ve really helped establish the culture, and we want to keep it going as long as we can.”

This story was originally published February 6, 2025 at 11:35 PM.