Cal Poly’s women’s basketball team had a poor offensive performance to say the least over the weekend, dropping a 47-46 home contest to UC Riverside. Believe it or not, it could’ve been worse.
The men’s basketball team dropped a Big West game to rival UC Santa Barbara Wednesday night, falling 64-37 in the Thunderdome.
Four days after upsetting what was a first-place UC Irvine team, Cal Poly shot 21.3-percent as a team.
“There’s no doubt about it, we didn’t get Cal Poly’s best effort tonight,” UCSB coach Bob Williams said.
The game was close for the first 10 minutes, but an eight minute scoreless stretch for the Mustangs allowed the Gauchos to pull away and take a 32- 19 advantage into the break.
Cal Poly’s shooting woes continued at the outset of the second half, opening with a 3:35 scoring drought. In the meantime, the Gauchos opened up a 23-point lead.
Mustangs’ coach Kevin Bromley emptied the bench in an effort to revive his team, leaving just Derek Stockalper from the original starting five. The ploy proved uneventful as the offense couldn’t find cadence.
Stockalper was Cal Poly’s leading scorer with seven. The Gauchos’ Cecil Brown led all scorers with 14.
The loss drops the Mustangs to 5-5 in the Big West and 7-15 overall. The Mustang also fall into fourth place as Long Beach State defeated Cal State Fullerton 88-79 Wednesday. The 49ers sit at 7-5 in the conference with two games left on their schedule.
The Gauchos improved to 4-6 in Big West play and 11-11 overall. The Gauchos have won four games in a row, including three consecutive Big West games.
The recently resurgent Gauchos moved into fifth place in the conference with the win, now ahead of Fullerton after the Titans’ Wednesday loss.
Cal Poly wasn’t the only Big West team struggling Wednesday as UC Riverside also posted 37 in a loss to UC Irvine.
Cal Poly’s next game is Saturday in a non-conference “Bracket Buster” match-up with Saint Mary’s in Moraga, Calif.