David Hanson, playing in his final game as a Mustang, led the team with 19 points and six rebounds as Cal Poly was eliminated from the Big West Tournament. No Cal Poly team, men’s or women’s, has ever gone to the NCAA Tournament in Division I.
“We have nothing to hang our head about, so that’s going to make us recover a little faster,” Hanson said. “It’s going to be tough… but it’s not the end of the world, we’ll move on and so will the team and so will the program.”
Cal Poly’s 18 wins on the season was the second most in program history and the most since Joe Callero took over as head coach to start the 2009-10 campaign.
While the Mustangs were able to connect on 45 percent of their shots in the first half, the team hit just 8 of 27 field goals in the second half and were 3 of 12 from beyond the arc. Senior point guard Amaurys Fermin had 11 points and hit three 3-pointers to finish out his only season playing for the Mustangs.
The Gauchos took excellent care of the ball, giving up just three turnovers to the Mustang’s nine.
UC Santa Barbara began to take control of the game when Johnson drove under the basket through a physical block and made a layup while being fouled by Chris Eversley with 4:19 to go.
He made the free throw to put UCSB ahead by four, Christian Peterson hit two more foul shots for the Gauchos then Johnson hit the dagger from the top of the arc. During that nearly 3-minute stretch the Mustangs missed four 3-pointers.
“The four shots that we missed were probably as good as the ones that (UCSB) had,” Callero said. “We had a little breakdown were we didn’t switch on the screen, two guys left the ball with (Johnson) and he lined one up and knocked it down.”
The rivalry game ended on a bitter note as UCSB led by 10 with five seconds to go when Gaucho James Nunnally went up for a last-second slam dunk. Senior Will Donahue fouled Nunnally hard on his way to the rim and both came crashing to the court. Donahue was issued a technical and both head coaches discussed the play after the game saying that it came down to two kids getting caught up in the emotion of the game.
“We knew it was going to come down to physicality,” Fermin said. “Throughout the game we were battling each other for rebounds and (we were) down on the floor.”
The Gauchos took a 32-31 lead into halftime after Orlando Johnson made a mid-range fade away jumper at the buzzer. Cal Poly led for most of the first 20 minutes using the perimeter shots and floaters in the paint from Hanson. He led all scorers at the break with 12 points including two 3-point shots.
The Mustangs lose seniors Hanson, Fermin, Donahue, Will Taylor, Matt Titchenal and Jordan Lewis but return forward Chris Eversley who took the bulk of Cal Poly’s scoring in the second half of the season.
UCSB will face top-seeded Long Beach State in the Big West Championship Saturday at 7 p.m. on ESPN2, the winner will advance to the NCAA Tournament.