Ryan ChartrandThe Cal Poly men’s basketball team handed Portland State a 92-87 nonconference loss in an ESPNU Bracket Buster game Saturday behind senior forward Derek Stockalper’s school-record nine 3-pointers and career-high 37 points in front of 2,167 fans in Mott Gym.
Stockalper joined in on the 3-point shooting spree with his nine treys exactly one week after Cal Poly junior guard Dawin Whiten tied the old record with eight in an 89-80 Big West Conference win over visiting UC Irvine on Feb. 10.
Cal Poly (14-10, 5-5 Big West) improved to 10-2 at home and has won three straight and eight of its last 10 games overall.
“I’m proud of them all for their individual accomplishments within the team concept,” Cal Poly head coach Kevin Bromley said. “When Derek is hot, he has got to keep shooting. He did it tonight and look what happened.”
Stockalper’s 37 points were the most scored by any Mustang since Varnie Dennis poured in 38 in an 80-73 home win over Division II Cal State Stanislaus on Dec. 29, 2003.
“I had no idea I was going to have this kind of a game tonight,” Stockalper said. “Everything just clicked. There were a few times I shot and thought ‘no way,’ and sure enough, it went in.”
The neck-and-neck scores made for a fast-paced game and an especially nail-biting second half. At the start of the second half, the Mustangs were only holding a four-point lead at 38-34.
The Mustangs trailed by six with 9 minutes, 44 seconds left before climbing back.
“Tonight’s game was kind of neat – we’ve had some close games, teams 10 points down trying to catch us, but we have not had one that was as consistently close as tonight,” Bromley said. “We didn’t panic. We stepped up and played the game.”
The Vikings (16-12) kept it even on their side with points put up by all their players except one. Paul Hafford led Portland State with 23 points.
Cal Poly standouts included sophomore post player Titus Shelton, who scored a career-high 20 points, and senior forward Tyler McGinn (13 points) and Whiten (11).
The Mustangs shot 48.5 percent from the floor compared to the Vikings’ clip of 52.4 percent.
With their four-game homestand over, the Mustangs resume Big West play at UC Riverside (6-20, 1-10) at 7 p.m. Thursday.