After fighting the Cal Poly men’s basketball team for control of the game, UC Davis did not get to enjoy its biggest lead of the second half for long. Cal Poly’s offense exploded in the second half, led by senior guard Shawn Lewis. The Mustangs quickly erased the Aggies’ one-point lead after an 18-8 run in the second half, capped off by a high-flying, alley-oop by Lewis with seven minutes remaining in the game.
From that point on, the Mustangs never relinquished their lead, defeating UC Davis 65-56 to put Cal Poly (10-11, 5-4 Big West) back into second place in the Big West.
Lewis — who had his fourth consecutive outing of 20 points or more — led all scorers with 23 points. He also added eight rebounds, two steals and only committed one turnover.
Lewis, who was six of 10 in the second half, said he was able to capitalize on the UC Davis defense, which wasn’t collapsing on him fast enough.
“A lot of teams try to converge on me,” Lewis said. “When they do, I’m always looking for the man on the wing spacing out. This game, they didn’t take advantage of that, and I was able to score in the lane.”
Cal Poly started the game with defensive intensity, holding UC Davis to one field goal in the first eight minutes of play. But UC Davis was able to erase Cal Poly’s early lead when the Mustangs went on their own scoreless drought, scoring two points in five and a half minutes.
Despite shooting 36 percent in the first half, Cal Poly led 27-23 at halftime and held UC Davis to just 25 percent from the floor.
The Aggies earned a 34-33 lead in the early minutes of the second half, connecting on each of their first four shots. Cal Poly’s defense responded, forcing UC Davis into multiple turnovers which led to quick points for the Mustangs.
Head coach Joe Callero said the defense was key for the Mustangs to pull away from UC Davis and earn the win.
“Our defensive pressure created a couple turnovers where we got out in transition,” Callero said. “There was a three to four minute stretch there where we got easy baskets. We just put a nice run together, where we were able to take a tight game and push it to six or eight points and then push it to 10.”
Cal Poly, which leads the conference in 3-point defense, was able to win the battle beyond the arc. UC Davis, which boasts a Big West best of 36.4 percent from beyond the arc, only made two of 14 shots from 3-point land.
The Mustangs’ defense was also able to force 19 turnovers and turn them into 23 points.
Center Will Donahue led Cal Poly with nine rebounds and added 13 points, while guard Maliik Love had 11 points.
The team was able to bring the crowd to its feet when Lewis stole the ball on a fast-break play, giving the ball to guard Drake U’u who served the ball to Lewis for the alley-oop.
“I basically just tell guys to throw it up there,” Lewis said. “We made eye contact … and I just knew Drake was going to throw me that lob.”
U’u said Lewis makes the alley-oops look easy.
“With Shawn you can throw a terrible pass and it doesn’t matter,” U’u said. “He made me look good.”
It was the first game back for U’u since Cal Poly played UCLA on Dec. 11. He scored four points to go with his five rebounds and two assists in his first game back in almost two months.
Despite the injury, U’u said he was able to learn a lot from having to sit out for a few weeks.
“It was hard not being able to play,” U’u said. “But, one of the great things about sitting out is being able to just kind of sit back and watch. Sometimes you get better just watching.”
Cal Poly plays its second conference game of the week this Saturday, Feb. 5 against Pacific at 7:00 p.m.