Mustangs cool off in Florida: Drop second straight to Bethune-Cookman

Coming off a 20-point home loss to Fresno State, Cal Poly shot 3-25 from three point range and lost to Bethune-Cookman Tuesday night in Daytona Beach, FL 67-53. The Mustangs are now 4-6 on the season.

Is there a draft in here? 

The Mustangs never led against the Wildcats, shooting just 33 percent from the field in Moore Gymnasium. You might think the Mustangs would do well in a small arena — Moore holds fewer people than Mott Athletics Center’s 3,032 capacity. But the Mustangs managed just 1-15 shooting from downtown as they tried to come back in the second half after going 2-10 in the first half. For a team that depended heavily on three-point shooting early in the season in wins over Santa Clara and College of Charleston, the Mustangs have gone cold in recent games. Just a week ago, Cal Poly was shooting 41 percent from downtown as a team. After going 7-45 (15.6 percent) over the past two games, that overall percentage has cooled to 36 percent.  

Hank Hollingsworth has been getting starts at center of late for Joe Callero’s squad. By Owen Main

Scrooges all around

Speaking of taking a lot of three pointers, Cal Poly isn’t getting to the charity stripe much this season. They make the ones they get, but as a team they take a very low number of free throws, and that trend has continued this week. In each of the past two games, Cal Poly’s opponent has made more free throws than Cal Poly has attempted. While free throw numbers like that aren’t everything, they can be an indicator of how much margin for error a team’s offense has in other areas. Like three point shooting. 

Ivy League coming to SLO

Cal Poly will face Princeton on Saturday night in Mott Athletics Center. On December 31, 2016, Princeton beach Cal Poly 81-52 in a game during which no Cal Poly player scored in double figures. Cal Poly’s game on Saturday will be just their third ever against an Ivy League opponent. 

Princeton has a tie to the Central Coast. Paso Robles native Ray Robins was a standout prep player locally and played basketball at Princeton at the same time would-be Major Leaguers Chris Young (pitcher) and Will Venable also graced the Tigers’ roster. 

Tip-off for Saturday night’s game is scheduled for 7:00pm inside Mott Athletics Center.

Photos from Saturday’s game against Fresno State by Owen Main. To see more photos or to purchase photos, click here. If you just want to contribute to the cause, Venmo @Owen-Main or paypal owen@fansmanship.com.