Cal Poly topples Anteaters for first Big West win of the season

It was a total team effort. Cal Poly used hot shooting early and clutch baskets and defense late to upend Big West frontrunner UC Irvine 79-66 at the Bren Event Center on Thursday night.

Victor Joseph played big for the Mustangs in Irvine on Thursday. By Owen Main

Victor Joseph led four Mustangs in double figures with 22 points. Donovan Fields score 15 and Ridge Shipley had 12. Luke Meikle scored 10 to go with six rebounds for the Mustangs, who are now 6-14 overall, 1-5 in Big West play.

Cal Poly came out hot, making eight of their first nine shots from the field, en route to an early lead. UC Irvine stormed back to take a 47-43 lead with 14:07 to play in the game. But Cal Poly stayed strong and didn’t flinch. Joseph and Fields took turns making shots, Ridge Shipley controlled the tempo, and Aleks Abrams and Zach Gordon set good screens and played good defense as the Mustangs began to pull away.

With three minutes to go, it became clear that Cal Poly was going to pull the upset.

Box score from UCI

Happy birthday coach Kirby

Cal Poly assistant coach Sam Kirby tweeted this before the game:

All I want for my bday is a W!!! Let's go @calpolymbb !!!! On ESPN 3 at 7pm vs. UC Irvine

— Sam Kirby (@coachkirb) January 27, 2017

Coach Kirb got his birthday wish, as Cal Poly did a really nice job digging on Ioannis Dimakopoulos just enough to keep him off balance.

Happy birthday coach Kirb!

Joseph gets hot

Victor Joseph, who had been in a mini-slump to start Big West play, lit it up for the Mustangs. Joseph shot 8-12 from the field to go with 2 rebounds and 2 assists.

I hate to say I called it but….

With his confidence, he'll get back on-track sooner than later. #Victor CP vs. UCI at 7pm on ESPN3 tonight.

A photo posted by Fansmanship.com (@fansmanship) on Jan 26, 2017 at 6:46am PST

I’m mostly playing around, but it’s true that Joseph has a certain quiet confidence to his personality that is well-suited to not being in a slump for too long. He’s under six feet tall, but he packs a punch, especially when he gets his jumper going early.

Little dudes do it

Along with Joseph, Donovan Fields was a nightmare for UCI to stay in front of. Fields is lightning quick into the paint to start and then uses both hands really nicely around the hoop. Between Shipley, Fields, and Joseph, Cal Poly’s three point guard options combined for 49 points. Their movement with the ball and into the paint proved really disruptive for UC Irvine’s zone and man-to-man defenses.

They also combined for five assists and zero turnovers. That’s a ratio Joe Callero will be pleased with.

Don’t foul

Believe it or not, the taller (by a lot) UC Irvine team only got to the line six times in the game to Cal Poly’s 18. The Mustangs didn’t commit a lot of dumb fouls away from the basket and they played pretty straight-up on the rebounding side of things too.

Luke Nelson not being in the game probably contributed to Cal Poly not committing silly fouls, but the Mustangs had a good game plan and stuck to it until the Anteaters started to erode. Nelson, my preseason pick for Big West Player of the Year, was dressed out but didn’t play due to a hamstring injury.

Revenge trip?

Cal Poly has a chance to avenge a loss on the road for the second time in three days when they visit Cal State Fullerton on Saturday night. The Titans beat the Mustangs 87-74 at Mott two weeks ago in a game that wasn’t very close in the second half. Tip at Titan Gym is set for 6:00pm on Saturday and can be seen on ESPN3.