With less than six minutes remaining in the first half, guard Maliik Love laid in the last basket the Mustangs would score in the period. Cal Poly missed its last seven shots from the field as Cal State Fullerton took to a 32-22 halftime lead.
The game felt all too similar to Cal Poly’s earlier loss to Long Beach State. After Cal Poly pulled within two, the 49ers went on a 9-0 run to end the first half. Cal Poly never recovered and ultimately lost 69-53.
This time, the Mustangs made sure they did not make the same mistake twice.
A second-half offensive surge propelled the Mustangs (7-8, 3-1 Big West) past the Titans (6-11, 2-3) for their third straight conference win.
Forward David Hanson — who led all scorers with 25 points — said, with Long Beach State in mind, the team knew they could not let the game slip away.
“We came out and we wanted to be on the attack right away, and we were able to do that,” Hanson said. “That 10-point lead went away very quickly and we were right back in it. In the past we’ve come out in the second half down by 10 and they’ve stretched it to 20, so we really made an emphasis to not let that happen.”
The Mustangs, who shot 33 percent in the first half, came out hot, doubling their first-half point total in the first seven minutes of the second half.
Forward Jordan Lewis electrified the crowd with a steal and fast-break dunk that put the Mustangs within two and capped a 12-4 run to start the period.
Head coach Joe Callero said the difference between the Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State games was the team wasn’t getting ahead of itself.
“When we played Long Beach State and we got the big dunk, I thought we celebrated like, ‘OK, we’ve got this now,’” Callero said. “But that was only one play. Tonight, we said that when we make a big play and we get the game close, we have to use that as a time to focus more, not relax.”
Callero saw his team lock down on defense, holding Cal State Fullerton to 25 percent shooting in the second half, including a seven-minute scoreless drought.
“We rode that wave,” Callero said. “We never let them squirrel away like Long Beach State.”
Senior guard Shawn Lewis notched his first 3-pointer of the night with 12:58 remaining, giving the Mustangs a 45-44 lead — their first of the half.
After Cal Poly went on another offensive slump, scoring two points in four and a half minutes, back-to-back 3-pointers from Hanson put Cal Poly up by just two with 1:28 to go.
Jordan Lewis then launched fans to their feet for the second time in the night when he buried a deep corner 3-pointer as the shot clock expired to give Cal Poly a 58-53 lead.
Jordan Lewis said despite the excitement of making the shot, he had to focus on finishing out the game.
“It went in, I was happy,” Jordan Lewis said. “But I was already looking back on defense to see where my man was. I didn’t want him to come down and shoot a quick three.”
It was the first game all season the Mustangs came from a halftime deficit greater than two points to win.
Cal Poly shot 46.2 percent from the field and 54.5 percent from the 3-point line in the second half, while holding Fullerton to 32.7 percent for the game. It was the sixth time in the Mustangs’ last seven games they have held an opponent to under 40 percent shooting.
The Mustangs will play their next game at home against UC Irvine at 7 p.m. this Saturday in Mott Gym.