Mustangs chop down Oaks, honor alumni

Brian Bennett led Cal Poly with 15 points and 8 rebounds. By Owen Main

In their final home game before the start of the Big West Conference Season in January, Cal Poly went on a 17-0 first-half run and 9-0 run to start the second half to put the game out of reach, beating Menlo College 72-35 at Mott Athletics Center.

Brian Bennett led Cal Poly with 15 points and 8 rebounds. Joel Awich scored a career-high 13 points and grabbed 5 rebounds. Reese Morgan scored 11 points off the bench for Cal Poly, who has now won their three home games and lost their three road games this season.

Skyler Sexton led the Oaks with 11 points on 3-6 shooting from behind the arc.

Cal Poly had an early 30-point lead in the second half and was able to empty their bench and play everyone who was available. All ten players who played for the Mustangs scored in the game.

The Mustangs only shot 39 percent from the field and 25 percent from 3-point range, but out-rebounded Menlo 51-26 in the game.

History converges

Cal Poly’s first victory as a Division I program came in 1994-95 against Menlo College. Their 250th as a D-I program came Saturday night, also against Menlo College. To make it even more tidy, eight of the nine players and an assistant coach who finished the ’94-’95 season for Cal Poly were honored at halftime of Saturday’s game.

The Mustangs are now 6-0 all-time against Menlo and 32-1 all-time against non-Division I opponents.

Nwaba gets a rest

Junior forward and leading scorer, David Nwaba sat for Cal Poly after suffering a concussion in practice this week. Nwaba is averaging 13.4 points through the teams first five games.

A shade of gray

Cal Poly broke out another alternate uniform color on Saturday, showing off their new all-gray jerseys. The gray contrasts nicely with the green lettering and it’s possible that the gray also helps my camera to focus better on players as they move.

The gray uniforms mean that Cal Poly now has four options — white, green, black, and gray.

Joel Awich scored a career-high 13 points. By Owen Main

Awich gets it going

Joel Awich, who has now started all six games for Cal Poly this year, came in averaging just 5.2 points per game. On Saturday, he scored a career-high 13 points. If Cal Poly is going to be competitive in the Big West this season, Awich will have to continue to be a bigger factor on offense.

Alumni Weekend

On their alumni weekend, the men’s basketball program honored the first ever Division I team from 1994-95. That inaugural team had twin 13-game losing streaks and their only win of the season was a closely-contested contest against the same Menlo College who the Mustangs beat again on Saturday.

On Friday night, the team hosted a dinner honoring the 1994-95 team. Players 20 years removed from the first Division I season reflected on the difficulties of the season and the bonds that playing together at Cal Poly formed.

A podcast with Dave Dinee, the point guard on that team and unofficial spokesperson, is scheduled to be released later this week.

After the game, Callero reflected on what it meant to have the team from 20 years ago on campus this weekend.

“They persevered through a 1-26 season and we honor them for that,” said Callero. “People say, ‘How do you honor a team that went 1-26?’ Well, who better to honor? They finished the season. They started off with 15 [players], they finished it with nine, and that perseverance reminds me a lot of our team last year, who I don’t think many people had much faith in… . That team in ’94-’95 had to persevere through and through and through. They’re all still close together these days, they keep in touch, and I think for them to talk to our guys about that commitment to each other that commitment to your school, that commitment to your coaching staff and keep working, regardless of what’s happening, I think there’s some similarities to what we believe in… . Until it’s over, we’re fighting all the way to the end.”

Photos by Owen Main