Cal Poly Closes Out San Francisco 78-71

Cal Poly enjoyed the cupcake game tonight, climbing the hilltop and prevailing over USF on Monday handing the Dons their second straight loss at home.

The first half was a flurry of scoring runs for both teams. The Dons jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead, then the Mustangs galloped back with an 8-0 run of their own taking the score to 9-8. Freshman guard Frankie Ferrari, absent from floor during the last three USF games brought a lot of energy and sticky play to during the first half as USF Coach Rex Walters looked for the right combination to answer the challenge presented by Cal Poly. Ferrari made 3 key assists during the game.

Nov 15, 2014; Reno, NV, USA; Cal Poly Mustangs forward Brian Bennett (34) comes down with a rebound in front of his teammate guard Maliik Love (3) during the second half of their game with the Nevada Wolf Pack at Lawlor Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Lance Iversen-USA TODAY Sports. Nevada won 65-49

The scoring runs continued to seesaw back and forth, though the Dons shot a dismal 36% from the field in the first half. The Mustangs carefully carved out a 5 point lead with 5:52 left to go in the first half with the score at 22-17 by capitalizing on USF’s turnovers and causing mental errors.  Kruize Pinkins found his jump hook shot off the rebound again but it wasn’t enough to narrow the scoring gap. Cal Poly led 34-27 at the half.

USF legend Bill Cartwright joined the radio broadcast team of Pat Olson and Jim Revelli at halftime though the video from theWtv froze up and left those of us in cyberspace spinning and instead suffering through the Ruby Tuesday salad bar ads until the second half got underway.

Cal Poly quickly jumped ahead to a 10 point lead over USF after the half forcing the Dons to play catch-up the rest of the game. While the Dons were able to close the gap, it was too little too late. David Nwaba led Cal Poly with 19 points and 6 rebounds. Joel Awich led the team in rebounding with 9 rebounds. Reese Morgan finished the game with 17 points. Brian Bennett had 14 points.

USF’s Matt Glover accumulated almost more fouls than points before fouling out at the very end of the game. Mark Tollefson was the scoring leader for the Dons with 16 points and 5 rebounds, Tim Derksen finished with 13 points and 6 rebounds, Kruize Pinkins had 14 points and 8 rebounds. Chris Adams made effective use of his 19 minutes in the game racking up 12 points. Frankie Ferrari contributed 3 key assists.

The Dons now stand at 5-5. They will remain at home to play Portland State on Thursday.