Notebook: Cuesta men’s basketball team begins playoffs Friday at Fullerton
The Cuesta College men’s basketball team will aim to extend its season when the Cougars travel south to play Fullerton College in the second round of the California Community College Athletic Association regional playoffs Friday night.
Coming off a 107-100 double-overtime loss to Moorpark in the de facto conference championship game last week, Cuesta (22-9) earned the No. 11 seed in the SoCal Region after finishing third in the North Division of the Western State Conference standings.
Sixth-seeded Fullerton (21-7) lost its final two games of the regular season to finish third in the Orange Empire Conference behind top-ranked Saddleback and No. 12 Cypress.
The winner of Friday’s second-round game will take on either Chaffey or Mt. San Antonio in the third round next Wednesday.
Cuesta and Fullerton will be meeting for the second time this season, having played in the second game of the year back on Nov. 7. The Cougars won that matchup, 71-62, behind a 21-point, eight-rebound performance from sophomore center Roberto Mantovani.
The 6-foot-8, 235-pound Cyprus native has been among the most statistically dominant players in the state this winter. He averages a double-double with 15.8 points and 11.1 rebounds per game while shooting nearly 50 percent from the field.
During Cuesta’s loss at Moorpark last Saturday, Mantovani scored a season-high 37 points on 14-for-26 shooting and pulled down 20 rebounds, also a season high, in 45 minutes.
Karem Özel (13.4), Rafail Eleftheriou (10.8) and Evgeniy Moiseev (10.3) also average double-digit scoring for the Cougars.
Fullerton is similarly balanced offensively, with Julian Richardson’s 14.5 points per game leading three players in double figures.
Mustangs set for Pac-12 tourney
Cal Poly will send four wrestlers to the Pac-12 Championships this weekend, which begin Saturday at Wells Fargo Arena on Arizona State’s campus.
The Mustangs’ contingent includes 197-pounder J.T. Goodwin (17-9), 157-pounder Colt Shorts (14-8), 141-pounder Colton Schilling (10-7) and 174-pounder Travis Berridge (8-4). That group hopes to bring back Cal Poly’s first Pac-12 individual title since Devon Lotito won the 133-pound bracket in 2013.
Seven players return to defend their Pac-12 titles from a year ago: 125-pounder Ronnie Bresser of Oregon State, 141-pounder Jack Hathaway of Oregon State (133 a year ago), 149-pounder Geo Martinez of Boise State (141 last year), 165-pounder Jim Wilson of Stanford, 184-pounder Blake Stauffer of Arizona State, 197-pounder Cody Crawford of Oregon State and 285-pounder Nathan Butler of Stanford.
The NCAA Championship meet will be held March 17-19 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Cal Poly soccer signs six prep standouts
The Cal Poly men’s soccer team signed six prep standouts to National Letters of Intent on Wednesday, according to a release put out by the school.
Under the direction of second-year head coach Steve Sampson, the Mustangs added three forwards, two midfielders and one goalkeeper to this year’s class.
“We have a great mix of attacking and defending players who come from all over the United States and Canada and this will be considered one of the best recruiting classes in the country,” Sampson said in the release. “We strive to build upon our success from last season and this recruiting class will help in that endeavor for many years to come.”
Cal Poly qualified for the NCAA Tournament last fall and graduated four key seniors, three of which were selected in the MLS draft last month.
The list of incoming recruits includes forward/midfielder Sebastian Herran (Miami, Fla.), forward/midfielder Daniel Malki (Phoenix, Ariz.), forward/midfielder Braden Myus (Greenville, S.C.), midfielders Diego Alonso (Berkeley, Calif.) and Kenneth Higgins (Oceanside, Calif.) and goalkeeper Luciano Trasolini (Burnaby, B.C.).
This story was originally published February 25, 2016 at 3:08 PM with the headline "Notebook: Cuesta men’s basketball team begins playoffs Friday at Fullerton."