Any momentum Cal Poly got from its win against Pepperdine on Dec. 21 wasn’t enough to help the Mustangs get past Long Beach State last week.
Cal Poly dropped a 69-53 loss to the 49ers last Thursday in the Mustangs’ conference opener. The loss marks the team’s eighth loss in its last 11 games. Six of those losses came in the month of December.
Most of the games ended closely, with the Mustangs falling to San Diego State, California and UCLA by small margins. This game wasn’t as close.
Guard Shawn Lewis slammed home a dunk with 2:10 to go in the first half to trim Long Beach State’s lead to 20-18, but from there, the 49ers scored nine points to pile up a 29-18 advantage at the half. Long Beach State completed a 23-2 run after scoring 14 of the first 16 points of the second half, building a 43-20 cushion with 15:28 to play.
It got worse as Long Beach State racked up as large as a 24-point lead in the second half.
The Mustangs got as close as 13 points down the stretch but couldn’t pull out enough stops to hold Long Beach State.
Forward David Hanson led the Mustangs with 21 points — the seventh time in 12 games he has been the Mustangs’ scoring leader — and guard Jamal Johnson came off the bench with a career-high 12 points.
Lewis, who scored seven points for Cal Poly, needs 10 more to become the 15th Mustang to reach 1,000 career points.
Long Beach State hit 53 percent of its shots while holding Cal Poly to just 39 percent.
Long Beach State outrebounded Cal Poly 40-25, led by Robinson and junior forward Eugene Phelps, each with nine. Center Will Donahue grabbed 10 boards, his sixth double-digit rebound total of the season, for the Mustangs.
Cal Poly resumes Big West play next week with games Thursday at Pacific and Saturday at UC Davis.