Cal’s 91-73 win over Cal Poly on Thursday was not about what the Bears accomplished as much as what the Bears avoided.
Cal avoided being the Mustangs’ first victim since last December 21. Instead the Bears extended Cal Poly’s losing streak to 22 straight games, the longest active losing streak in Division I men’s basketball.
Cal also avoided becoming the first ACC team to lose a game this season. With the Bears win, the 18 ACC teams are now a combined 21-0 in the young season.
It added up to Cal’s first 2-0 start in five years, and both wins came at Haas Pavilion.
None of this was a surprise, although Cal had to rally from an early 12-point deficit to get the win. Cal was a 14.5-favorite against Cal Poly, which is 0-2 this year and was picked to finish last in the 11-team Big West conference in the preseason poll after going 0-20 in conference play last season.
However, in the Mustangs’ season opener on Tuesday, Cal Poly led San Francisco by six points with less than nine minutes left before losing 86-78, so Cal Poly may be better than anticipated. They appear to be a much better team under new head coach Mike DeGeorge.
And Cal Poly put the Bears on heir heels when the Mustangs shot out to a 17-5 lead in the first six minutes.
“Cal Poly made it extremely tough on us,” Cal coach Mark Madsen said. “We got off to a slow start defensively. I had to burn a timeout, and I got after the guys and they really responded. So I was incredibly proud of our players for the response to Cal Poly just coming out and absolutely blitzing us from the start of the game.”
Cal had one change in its starting lineup. BJ Omot was in the starting five on Thursday, replacing Joshua Ola-Joseph, who was a starter in Monday’s opener. Omot joined Mady Sissoko, Andrej Stojakovic, DJ Campbell and Jovan Blacksher Jr., all of whom started on Monday.
Cal was led by Blacksher, who scored 18 points, while Stojakovic added 15, although he was just 5-for-17 from the field. Rytis Petraitis came off he Cal bench to add 13 points and six rebounds, and he also drew eight fouls, including taking two charges, in another example of his scrappy, physical style. Bears big man Lee Dort played just 18 minutes off the bench, but that gave him enough time to collect eight points, a game-high 11 rebounds, four personal fouls and two monster alley-oop dunks.
The Bears broke the game open early in the second half when they hit three-pointers on their first three possessions after halftime to expand a tenuous four-point halftime lead to 13 points less than two minutes into the second half.
“They came in and pretty much blized us,” Stojakovic said. “Obviously going into it we knew they were going to come in very aggressive, considering the loss to USF. We just had to stay poised to come back. It’s just trusting each other.”
Isaac Jessup had 20 points for Cal Poly. Cal Poly guard Jarred Hyder, who spent three seasons on the Cal roster and graduated from Cal in May 2023, had eight points for the Mustangs after scoring 19 points in the opener against San Francisco.
Cal held a 39-35 lead at halftime, but the Bears had to come from behind to achieve that advantage. Cal made just two of its first nine shots, and when Hyder hit three-pointers on consecutive Cal Poly possessions the Mustangs had that 17-5 lead six minutes into the game.
Cal slowly worked its way back into the game and took it first lead with 5:37 left in he first half when Petraitis hit a three-pointer to put Cal ahead 25-24. The Bears expanded their lead to nine points with 2:27 remaining before halftime, but the Mustangs cut the lead to four points at intermission.
Cal then scored the first 12 points of he second half to take command of the game. The Bears led by 25 points midway through the second half, and sort of limped in from there.
Cal plays its first road game of the season next Wednesday when the Golden Bears face Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee. Cal’s Lee Dort played for Vanderbilt the past two seasons before transferring to Cal, although he played only one game for the Commodores last season..
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