Mustang Men Turn it Around Against Hawai’i

The Cal Poly men’s basketball team got back on track in a big way Thursday night at Mott Gym.  Their opponent, the Hawai’i Warriors ended up being more of a punching bag than an adversary in the 88-59 routing.  Riding a three-game losing streak, the Mustangs seemed to take out their frustration on the overmatched Warriors.

Chris Eversley lead the way by filling up the score sheet with 19 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists and 4 steals.  Reese Morgan was unconscious from distance, Brian Bennett scored and boarded with consistency inside (17 points, 9 rebounds), and Drake U’u’s career high 14 points and an 8 to 1 assist to turnover ratio also significantly contributed to the victory.

Chris Eversley executes a jump-hook in the lane, one of many moves in his entire arsenal. Photo by Owen Main

Poly’s big win came down to three main measurements:  a more-than 2 to 1 assist to turnover ratio, dead-eye 3 point shooting, and authoritative offensive rebounding.  The Mustangs also almost doubled-up the Warriors in total rebounding by a margin of 38-21.   Cal Poly improves to 4-0 in the Big West when they out rebound their opponent.

The Warriors opened play on a 4-0 run that was halted by Poly’s first points, a 3-pointer from Dylan Royer, and after a Brian Bennett left-handed hook, the Mustangs led 5-4 at the under 16:00 timeout.

Drake U’u’s 3-pointer out of the timeout, inside scoring from Bennett and two free throws from U’u helped Poly go on a 14-0 run, opening the game up to a 14-4 Mustang lead at the 14:00 mark.  The hustle of Chris Eversley allowed the Mustangs to win the early turnover battle, a tendancy that would continue throughout the entire game.

After a Reese Morgan bomb from long distance, Coach Joe Callero snapped off a quit timeout, and with 10:18 left in the first half, Poly held a 19-10 advantage.  Morgan dialed long distance again out of the timeout to bring the score to 22-12 Mustangs with 7:41 to go in the half.

Eversley showed great leadership and outstanding hustle as the conversion of two garbage buckets ballooned the Poly lead to 16 points with 4:23 left. Four of Eversley’s five rebounds in the first half were on the offensive glass.

The 1st half closed with the Mustangs winding the clock down after yet another offensive rebound, and Morgan hit a clutch 20-footer with 4.3 seconds left.

Then, you guessed it — more clock issues.  The longest 4.3 seconds in the history of mankind allowed Hawai’i to hit a long 3-pointer at the buzzer, closing the Cal Poly lead to 38-26 at the break.

The Mustangs completely owned the offensive glass in the first half, as half of their 16 rebounds were of the offensive variety.

The second half opened with Morgan back doing what he does, as he buried two more 3-pointers.  Eversley then joined the party as he hit one of his own, and the Mustangs extended the lead to 47-28.  At this point Hawai’i was forced to take a timeout before the under 16:00 stoppage in an attempt to cool off Poly’s raging inferno from beyond the arc.

The route was on.

Joel Awich and Kyle Odister then finally got the Poly bench in the mix and pushed the Mustang lead to 55-33 with 13:30 left in regulation.

An acrobatic attempt by U’u as he was fouled gave the crowd one of their last audible gasps of the game.  U’u converted both attempts from the charity stripe, bringing him to a perfect 6-6 from the line at that point, as the scoreboard read 59-36 at the under 12:00 timeout.

An Odister 3-pointer and a Bennet inside bucket gave the Mustangs a 28-point lead with 9:30 remaining.  Poly then extended their lead to 31 after another make from long distance, this time from Eversley, as they opened up a 69-38 margin.

With the score reading 77-46 and 4:20 left, Coach Callero took Eversley and Bennett out of the game to a well-deserved standing ovation from those who remained at a thinning Mott Gym.

As the final seconds ticked down,  Joel Awich joined the 3-point party in what could be considered beyond garbage time.  It was landfill time at this point.

“This was by far in my opinion the best 40 minutes we have played all year, both sides of the ball,” remarked Mustang Coach Joe Callero after the game.

“They (Hawai’i) may have been fatigued from a long road trip, but we squeezed the life out of them.  We need to strive for perfection and that killer instinct,” continued Callero.

Cal Poly (8-9 overall, 4-3 Big West) will host Northridge Saturday at 7:00pm.  Hawai’i (10-9 overall, 4-4 Big West) will now hop on a charter bus and head to Santa Barbara for a Saturday night meeting at 7:00pm.

After opening Big West play with three consecutive wins, and then dropping three consecutive games, will this Mustang drubbing of Hawai’i propel them to another impressive performance on Saturday night?  Or will the up and down, roller coaster trend of late continue?

There are lots of potential reasons to speculate in either direction make a lot of sense, but I do know one thing for certain:  if the Mustangs play with the level of overall intensity and execution that they displayed on this night, the sky is the limit.