UC Irvine eliminates Cal Poly from Big West Conference Tournament
ANAHEIM — Luke Nelson simply wasn’t going to let UC Irvine get beat Thursday night.
With Cal Poly delivering one of its best shooting performances of the season during the opening round of the Big West Conference Tournament, the 6-foot-3 Nelson seemed to have an answer every time down the court.
He poured in a career-high 36 points on 11-for-15 shooting — one point shy of the tournament record — sending the second-seeded Anteaters to an 84-64 victory over the sixth-seeded Mustangs inside the Honda Center.
“I have confidence in myself and I kind of got that from my teammates and my coaches,” said Nelson, a Worthing, England native. “I felt like I got in a good rhythm early.”
The co-Big West champions weathered a red-hot shooting night from Cal Poly, which shot a season-high 59 percent from behind the 3-point line, to secure a spot in the semifinals for the fifth consecutive season.
Meanwhile, the Mustangs completed an uneven season with a 10-20 record, losing five straight games to close the year. They made nine 3-pointers in the first half, but fell flat in the second half, wrapping up what seventh-year head coach Joe Callero called a “transitional year.”
“Them coming back out in the second half and just hitting their first three or four shots gave them that bit of confidence and gave us that little bit of pressure where we started forcing it a little bit,” Callero said. “From that point on I thought Luke Nelson was a kid that says he going to make a lot of money.”
Much like Cal Poly in 2014, the Anteaters (25-8) won the conference tournament last season and secured the school’s first berth into the NCAA Tournament, eventually falling to fourth-seeded Louisville.
If Thursday night’s showing is any indication, this UC Irvine team has the makeup of another special run. A back-and-forth first half gave way to an Anteaters rout in the second, with UC Irvine making six of its first eight shots from the field after the break — and four of its five 3-pointers — to build a double-digit lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
The Mustangs had an opportunity to make a run midway through the second half when UC Irvine center Mamadou Ndiaye was ejected from the game for leaving the bench during a minor scrum after the whistle.
The 7-foot-6 center who was named the Big West Defensive Player of the Year earlier this week left the game with more than 13 minutes remaining. He scored six points and grabbed six rebounds in 16 minutes. His absence didn’t seem to matter with Nelson running the show.
“They still have great players,” said senior Brian Bennett, who had 10 points and five rebounds in the final game of his career. “We knew there could be a little momentum there. We tried to capitalize on it and they answered back.”
In the days leading up to the Big West Conference Tournament, Callero spoke at length about how difficult it can be to shoot in the 18,000-seat Honda Center.
The Mustangs, perhaps drawing on their experience from the 2014 run to the conference tournament title and NCAA Tournament berth, showed no signs of being overwhelmed by the venue early on.
A team that shot 34.2 percent from beyond the arc during the regular season started the game 5-for-5 from behind the 3-point line, and finished 13 of 23 for the game.
Sophomore reserve Luke Meikle came off the bench to make two quick 3-pointers and gave Cal Poly an early spark offensively.
Meikle, a 6-foot-9 transfer from Gonzaga, had never made more than two 3-pointers in a game, yet he made all four of his attempts in the first half. Five players made at least one 3-pointer in the opening 20 minutes as the Mustangs went into the break trailing 38-36.
Meikle averaged 7.7 points per game during the regular season, the fifth-highest total on the team. He went on to lead Cal Poly with 19 points on 5-for-6 shooting from behind the 3-point line.
“They were just making tough shots,” Meikle said. “We tried to fight, definitely tried to fight, but they swung the ball and executed well.”
Senior guard David Nwaba contributed eight points and seven rebounds while guarding Nelson most of the night. Freshman Josh Martin scored nine points on three 3-pointers, and Reese Morgan add six before fouling out in 28 minutes.
This story was originally published March 10, 2016 at 9:17 PM with the headline "UC Irvine eliminates Cal Poly from Big West Conference Tournament."