Sacramento State halted any momentum Cal Poly men’s basketball gained from its last win over Loyola Marymount.
The Mustangs pieced together one of their best offensive showcases of the year, yet Sacramento State was able to edge Cal Poly (2-3) out 71-67 Saturday night.
Forward David Hanson tallied a team-high of 23 points, guard Chris O’Brien scored a career-high 14 points and the Mustangs shot 59.5 percent from the field. Guard Shawn Lewis scored 14 points as well, and center Will Donahue boasted his fourth game with more than 10 rebounds.
Yet, the Mustangs weren’t able to grab the win.
Defensively, the Mustangs allowed a 61 shooting percentage from behind the 3-point arc en route to their third loss of the season.
Hanson came out of the gates hot to start the game. He scored 14 of Cal Poly’s initial 19 points, with most of his scoring coming from the 3-point range. He hit two 3-pointers in the opening minutes and the rest of the team went on to hit 8-of-18 from long range in the opening 10 minutes.
Before Saturday, the Mustangs had hit no more than five 3-pointers in any game all season.
Sacramento State, however, stole the momentum going into the half with a 10-4 run.
After the Mustangs went on to grab a 45-41 lead with 13 minutes remaining, the Hornets took the lead and never looked back.
With 13 seconds to play and trailing 69-65, Donahue connected on an alley-oop off an inbound pass from Lewis, cutting the deficit to two points. However, Sacramento State freshman guard Jackson Carbajal converted a pair of free throws at the other end of the court and O’Brien missed back-to-back 3-pointers to close the game.
With the loss, the Mustangs dropped to 2-3 on the young season.