Three players scored in double figures Sunday to lead the Cal Poly men’s basketball team to a 72-59 nonconference win over visiting St. Mary’s.
The Mustangs (3-2) held onto a 35-22 halftime lead in front of 1,421 in Mott Gym to equal their best overall start to a season since 2003-04.
Cal Poly senior forward Tyler McGinn scored 13 of his team-high 16 points in the first half. He was 4 for 6 from three-point range and had six rebounds and two steals in 30 minutes.
Post players Dreshawn Vance and Titus Shelton added 11 and 10 points, respectively, for Cal Poly, which is 2-0 against West Coast Conference teams this season.
Vance, a junior power forward, pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds – four offensive – in 21 minutes.
Shelton, a sophomore forward/center, added six boards and a blocked shot.
Cal Poly junior shooting guard Dawin Whiten scored nine points and sophomore point guard Trae Clark (five assists) and senior swingman Derek Stockalper added seven points apiece.
Other than a 91-72 rout of Division II Cal State Stanislaus on Nov. 20, it was the Mustangs’ largest margin of victory all season.
And it came against a Gaels team that entered 4-2 and was coming off a 20-point win over TCU.
The last player off the St. Mary’s bench, Omar Samhan, poured in a game-high 17 points and pulled down a team-high seven rebounds in only 19 minutes.
The Mustangs edged the Gaels in points in the paint (28-24), second-chance points (12-11) and bench points (23-21).
Cal Poly led by as wide a margin as 66-45 with 3 minutes, 21 seconds remaining when Clark hit a 3-pointer.
The Mustangs host Division III Occidental (2-3) at 7 p.m. Wednesday. The Tigers are coming off a 20-6 season in which they reached the second round of the Division III tourney.