Injuries, shooting spell doom for men's basketball

The Cal Poly men’s basketball team lost its third-straight Big West Conference game Saturday, falling 62-58 at UC Riverside.

It amounted to just the second conference win of the year for the hosting Highlanders (5-15, 2-7 Big West), who prevailed despite shooting just 38 percent from the floor and compiling 17 turnovers.

Cal Poly (8-12, 3-5 Big West), which was out-rebounded 41-27 and made just 2 of its 16 attempts from 3-point range and could only muster five assists to UC Riverside’s 14.

Mustangs senior guard Dawin Whiten did not play due to an injury, and junior guard Trae Clark, also a starter, came off the bench due to illness.

Junior Chaz Thomas and sophomore Lorenzo Keeler started in their places. Thomas scored a team-high 19 points on just 7-of-21 shooting, including a 1-of-8 performance from behind the 3-point line, while Keeler struggled as well, making just 1 of his 7 floor shots, finishing with three points.

Junior center Titus Shelton made an efficient 4 of his 5 shots and all five of his free-throw attempts to finish with 13 points on behalf of the Mustangs. Senior forward Matt Hanson secured a game-high 10 rebounds for Cal Poly.

For the Highlanders, freshman guard Jalonni Diggs scored a team-high 16 points. Senior guard Larry Cunningham (12 points), junior forward Severin Gates (12) and sophomore guard Cleavon Barlow (10) also added double figures for UC Riverside.

All five of the Highlanders’ wins this season have come at their Student Rec Center.

UC Riverside established its biggest lead at 36-22 with 1 minute and 52 seconds left before halftime, at which point the Mustangs had narrowed the gap to 36-24.

On two separate occasions, the Mustangs cut the margin to two but never regained the lead they held early in the first half.

Cal Poly hosts UC Irvine at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Close singles calls lead way to victory for men’s tennis team

Several close matches led the Cal Poly men’s tennis team to a 5-2 victory at Oregon on Saturday.

Nick Berger and Andrew Gerst provided the Mustangs an early 1-0 lead by securing the doubles point with an 8-3 win over Alexander Cornelissen and Stephen Wiechert.

Before that, Cal Poly’s Robert Foy and Darryn Young defeated Geoff Embry and Romeo Mortera 8-4.

In singles play, Gerst edged Embry 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, and Foy narrowly defeated Cornelissen 6-2, 2-6, 7-5. Drew Jacobs added a victory for the Mustangs at the No. 6 position in two tiebreakers, 7-6, 7-6 (7-3) over Wiechert.

Young was the only Mustang to finish singles action in two sets, as he made quick work of Francisco Gallardo in the No. 3 spot, 6-3, 6-4.

Day comes in second in New York City

Cal Poly high jumper Sharon Day earned a second-place finish at the 101st Annual Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Friday.

Day, in her first competition wearing a Cal Poly uniform this season, cleared 6 feet, 2 « inches and finished behind three-time Olympian Amy Acuff for the second time this year.