Faith Mimnaugh and the Cal Poly women’s basketball team had its run, now it’s Joe Callero and the men’s turn. After the women’s basketball team reeled off eight straight wins, the men are doing their best to imitate their success.
The men’s basketball team is now at five.
The Mustangs (13-11, 8-4 Big West) defeated UC Riverside 56-40 Saturday to pin the nail on the longest win streak the team has had since 2006-07 and claim sole possession of second place in the Big West.
“I haven’t been on a five win streak since I’ve been here; it feels good,” guard Shawn Lewis said. “This is the first time we’ve felt like a team in all my years here. We know what it feels like to win now.”
Callero said despite the level of competition among Big West teams, he knew the game was a must-win for Cal Poly.
“Most important thing I thought tonight was that, in my mind, this game could have been a huge let down,” Callero said. “There was that mentality that we’re supposed to win because we’re on a four-game winning streak and we’ve beaten this team at their court. We really challenged our guys that this is a mental game, not a physical game.”
The Mustangs showed their mental toughness through both halves, battling through a 31.8 shooting percentage in the first half to eventually take a 22-point lead in the second.
Center Will Donahue began the game scoring eight of Cal Poly’s first 10 points in the first seven minutes of the game, to give Cal Poly an early 12-7 lead.
Donahue — who finished with 16 points, six rebounds and two blocks — said his early shots gave his offense momentum during the rest of the game.
“I felt it on the offensive end and just went with it,” Donahue said. “Our morale is high right now, but we’ve got to keep the focus on what we need to do and not get ahead of ourselves and just keep going with it.”
From there, Cal Poly would never relinquish its lead.
Despite holding UC Riverside to 34.8 percent from the floor in the first half, the Mustangs were only able to push their lead to four points at halftime.
The Mustangs, which boast a Division I-best defensive 3-point field goal percentage (26.9), allowed the Highlanders to convert three of nine attempts from behind the arc in the first half.
“We like to defend the 3-point line,” Callero said. “It’s a momentum shot and that’s something I’ve always tried to preach to our guys. We were able to hold them 3-13 for the game and three of those came in the first half. Our second-half adjustments were trying to limit their perimeter shooting.”
Cal Poly continued to lock down UC Riverside on the defensive end, holding them to 38.9 percent from the floor in the second half, while the Mustangs put together an offensive surge. Their offense turned around to hit 12 of 24 from the field, to bury UC Riverside in an insurmountable deficit.
With Cal State Northridge suffering a loss at home to Long Beach State, the Mustangs now hold second place in the Big West to themselves.
But the Mustangs will be challenged to retain their spot as they face first place Long Beach State and third place Cal State Northridge in their next two conference games. Cal Poly faces Cal State Northridge at home on Feb. 16 and Long Beach State on the road on Feb. 24.
Callero said despite suffering their two worst conference losses to each team, he is confident that Cal Poly will be stronger the second time around.
“It’s an exciting opportunity for us, I think we’re a different team now,” Callero said. “We’re confident we can go into any game, any night, any gym and we can perform to our potential.”