Cal Poly vs. UC Irvine
Redshirt junior Josh Martin scored a career-high 24 points and corralled 12 rebounds and his sixth career double-double, in the Mustangs’ 80-73 loss at UC Irvine Thursday night. Despite the strong effort by Martin, the Mustangs could not slow down the Anteaters.
The teams traded baskets in the beginning of the first half, which led to five lead changes in the first couple of minutes. Cal Poly fell behind 18-8, but quickly responded with an 11-0 run, which included a spectacular 3-point play by junior guard Donovan Fields, helping the Mustangs take a 19-18 lead.
The Anteaters scored on three of their next four trips down the floor and never took their foot off the gas pedal, ultimately holding onto the lead for the final 28 minutes of the game.
Cal Poly narrowed the deficit to four in the first half before UC Irvine went on a 9-1 run to push their lead to 12 at halftime. The Mustangs fell behind by 20 in the second half before they went on another run to trim UC Irvine’s lead to eight at 71-63, but that was as close as Cal Poly came to the lead in the second half.
The Mustangs were edged out by the Anteaters in nearly every statistical category, including being out-rebounded 42 to 29, out-scored 44 to 16 in points in the paint and 26 to 6 in bench points.
Sophomore forward Tommy Rutherford led the Anteaters in scoring with 20 points on 7-10 shooting and added eight boards on the night.
The Mustangs’ backcourt combo of senior combo guard Victor Joseph and Fields scored 34 points, shooting 13-22 from the field.
Cal Poly extends losing streak to four, falls to CSUN
Despite Fields’ team-leading 14 points and Martin’s fourth double-double of the year with 13 points and 11 rebounds, the Mustangs never found a groove against Cal State Northridge, falling 72-54 inside the Matadome Saturday night.
Cal Poly (6-13, 1-4) never led again after Martin dropped in a layup for the first basket of the game. Joseph’s layup cut the deficit to six early in the second half, but an 11-0 run by the Matadors put the game out of reach for the rest of the night.
Cal State Northridge (5-14, 2-3) was led by senior forward Tavrion Dawson’s 23 points and sophomore guard Lyrik Shreiner’s 11 rebounds. Freshman guard Terell Gomez added 20 points while playing the entire game. The Matadors shot an outstanding 52.1 percent from the field and scored 15 points off of turnovers. The Mustangs were held to a poor 35.7 percent from the field.
Junior guard Marcellus Garrick chipped in nine points for the Mustangs. Joseph, the leading scorer for Cal Poly this season, was held to four points on two for 11 shooting. The Mustangs also shot an abysmal 14.3 percent from three, only making three out of 21 shots.
The Mustangs have now lost four conference games in a row after winning their first conference match-up in dramatic fashion against UC Santa Barbara.
They will look to get back on track with a home game, as three out of the next four games will be inside Mott Athletics Center. Cal Poly’s first home game of Winter 2018 is Thursday night against Long Beach State at 7 p.m.