Cal Poly falls 83-80 to Montana State with UCLA, Big West action ahead
Cal Poly’s men’s basketball team likes to play fast and rack up a lot of points.
In their second year under Coach Mike DeGeorge, the Mustangs notched a notable early-season 92-85 win over Utah (7-4) on Nov. 20 and began its Big West Conference play with a 94-91 win over Cal State Fullerton on Dec. 4, both road victories.
Back at home at Mott Athletics Center on Tuesday, the Mustangs (5-7, 1-1 Big West) came up just short versus Montana State (5-7, 0-0 Big Sky), falling 83-80 as the team’s leading scorer on the season, Hamad Mousa, missed a contested 3-pointer in the final seconds that would have tied the game.
Cal Poly has returned all eligible roster players from last season, including this year’s starting point guard Peter Bandelj (17.1 points, 4.4 rebounds), wing Cayden Ward (15.2 points per game, 5 rebounds) and forward Guzman Vasilic (7.3 points, 2.8 rebounds), but still remains a young team with many freshmen and sophomores playing big minutes.
And they’ve been helped by some key additions with a heavy recruitment of international players. Mousa, a 6-foot-8 sophomore from Qatar, averages about 20 points and five rebounds per game to lead Cal Poly in scoring in his first year with the program.
Ali Assran, a 6-foot-9 freshman from Egypt and NBA Academy Africa, has added length, posting 4.8 and 5.6 rebounds per game.
In the non-conference matchup Tuesday, the Mustangs went neck and neck with the Bobcats in the first half, holding a 41-40 lead at the buzzer.
But Montana State’s effective pressure defense gave them the edge early in the second half and Cal Poly fell behind 73-59.
A late surge fueled by Bandelj, Mousa and Ward (who led the Mustangs with 25 points), nearly ended with a heroic comeback. DeGeorge said some costly mistakes, however, throughout the game were the difference.
“We’re a young group, and quite frankly, we’re not making great decisions, and it’s impacting us at both ends,” DeGeorge said. “Offensively, we get bogged down by certain defensive game plans, and we’re just not handling that very well. And then on defense, we’ve really improved defensively. But we get tired, and we stop communicating, and we’re just not a mature enough group to battle through those periods.”
DeGeorge added: “They’re fighting, and you can see that in terms of where they work to finish the game, but in terms of our plan, our process, we just got a long ways to go.”
Mousa, who tallied 16 points, got into early foul trouble, picking up his fourth foul early in the second half. But DeGeorge inserted the lanky wing back into the game down the stretch.
Ward’s 25 points were three off of his career high, and included a high-flying dunk over a defender on a cross-over dribble drive for an and-one that pulled Cal Poly within an 11-point deficit at 7:08 in the second quarter. Ward tallied a team-high eight rebounds on the night.
“Everybody had some mistakes, but we’re not really too focused on the results,” Ward said. “It’s more about the process. It’s a long season. It’s only December. So as long as we just keep getting better game by game, we’re going to be where we want to.”
Troy Plumtree, a 6-foot-6 freshman from New Zealand, took the floor for a long stretch in Mousa’s absence to help keep the game within range, grabbing five rebounds and playing some solid defense to give Cal Poly a boost.
Montana State effectively drove to the basket, creating open lanes for layups and kickouts for open 3-pointers versus the Mustangs.
“Kudos to them,” said Bandelj, a 6-foot-4 Slovenian in his second year at Cal Poly. “They really did a good job preparing for us. And they denied the passing lanes. We try to get the ball ahead and that kind of slowed us down. But we have a game plan in place for teams that do that. We just didn’t execute it to the way that we did in practice. So that was basically what it came down to on offense.”
Bandelj, who’s taking on a heavier role at point guard this year, said that since his freshman year he has put in a lot of work on his shooting with the help of Cal Poly Assistant Coach Kyle Bossier. And Bandelj has worked on his defense to understand the concepts better to what DeGeorge wants, while growing his leadership role, he said.
“Last year we had a one of the oldest teams in Division 1,” Bandelj said. “And now we have one of the youngest teams. It’s a stark contrast. So I went being one of the youngest players to one of the more mature ones. It has to be a quick switch to being a leader, and someone who other guys can look up to.”
DeGeorge, who wants his players to push the pace, said the Bobcats’ effectively slowed Cal Poly down by chewing up shot clock on offense and denying the ball well on defense.
“You got to work at it every day, and they are really a tough-minded group that really wants to succeed,” DeGeorge said. “They are very driven. Our goal is just to be the best team we can be in March and have a chance of being able to play in the conference tournament.”
Cal Poly prepares to face UCLA on the road Friday at 7 p.m. and then returns home Sunday at 4 p.m. to take on Idaho, before resuming conference action versus UC San Diego at home on Jan. 1.
This story was originally published December 16, 2025 at 10:55 PM.
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