Senior point guard Drake U’u is averaging 5.4 points per game to go with his 65 assists to 33 turnovers. He scored three points in the Mustangs 64-61 win over Hawaii on Saturday. – Photo by Ian Billings/ Mustang Daily
Mustang Daily Staff Report
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Five Cal Poly teams competed on the road this weekend to come away with a total of seven victories and an individual Pac-12 championship.
Men’s basketball
The men’s basketball team has started to win on the road just in time for the Big West Tournament. Having won just two games away from Mott Athletics Center going into this past weekend, the Mustangs (15-12, 10-6 Big West) won two away games against Cal State Northridge and Hawaii.
The victories moved Cal Poly into a tie for third place in the Big West standings with two games remaining in the regular season.
The Mustangs raced away from Cal State Northridge on Thursday night with the help of a record-setting performance from beyond the arc. Cal Poly hit 12-of-15 3-pointers against the Matadors, the highest percentage made in program history, and won 81-61.
Senior Dylan Royer led the way from long distance, hitting a career-high seven 3-pointers on eight attempts. He and junior forward Chris Eversley led the team with 23 points apiece.
Jamal Johnson dished out nine assists, a career high, as part of Cal Poly’s 22 total assists, the most under Joe Callero’s tenure.
The team traveled to Honolulu for its final Big West road game against Hawaii. Chris Eversley continued his hot shooting with 25 points in a 64-61 victory over the Warriors.
The Mustangs used 3-pointers from unlikely sources Jamal Johnson and Drake U’u to turn a two-point halftime advantage into a 13-point lead with less than four minutes to play.
However, the Warriors rallied with longballs of their own and the Mustangs failed to convert a pair of one-and-one attempts, letting Hawaii back into the game. The Warriors had possession for one last 3-point heave to tie the game, but the Mustangs defense kept a shot from getting off to seal the victory.
The team returns to Mott Athletics Center, where the Mustangs are 11-1 during the season on Thursday, to face the Big West’s last place team, UC Riverside. The team ends its regular season against Cal State Fullerton, which defeated the Mustangs 77-60 in Fullerton on Feb. 20.
Women’s basketball
The Mustangs are on a hot streak at the right time in the season. The team has won its past five contests and put itself in position to capture a piece of the Big West Conference regular season title for the third consecutive year. After notching a pair of blowout victories this past weekend, Cal Poly (18-9, 12-4 Big West) would capture the first seed in the Big West Tournament with two wins at home this weekend by virtue of its two victories over current conference leader Pacific.
On Thursday, the team was nearly flawless in the first half, jumping out to a 50-13 lead after 20 minutes. Head coach Faith Mimnaugh used the entire Cal Poly bench, as four players scored in double figures, including center Molly Schlemer who led the team with 16.
The team beat Cal State Fullerton 72-47 on Saturday, despite leading by just one point at halftime. The Mustangs held the Titans to 15 points in the second half while scoring 39 points of their own. Schlemer, the team’s leading scorer, had 16 points to lead the Mustangs on the night. She also pulled down 11 rebounds for her sixth double-double of the season.
The team faces UC Irvine on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. and Long Beach State at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday to close out the regular season.
Wrestling
One year, one Pac-12 title.
Freshman 133-pounder Devon Lotito wasted no time in making himself a force to be reckoned with in the conference as he captured first place at the Pac-12 Tournament and will advance to the NCAA Tournament on March 21-23. To set up his title bout, he received a bye in the first round, then won by forfeit in the semifinals, earning a rematch with Oregon State’s Brian Owen.
Lotito fell to Owen 6-3 in December at the Reno Tournament of Champions, but he avenged the loss on Saturday in Tempe, Ariz. in a 5-2 decision that clinched his place at the NCAA Tournament. No other Cal Poly wrestler finished in the top three.
Baseball
The wins just keep piling up for the Cal Poly baseball team. Despite dropping their first loss of the year on Friday against Washington, the Mustangs rallied to take the series with two wins on Saturday and Sunday. Sophomore right fielder Nick Torres hit three home runs during the series, swatted two doubles and batted in seven runs. His two home runs during Saturday’s 5-3 victory accounted for all of the Mustangs’ scoring.
On Sunday, sophomore right hander Bryan Granger pitched five innings, allowing just one unearned run to notch his third victory of the season. Jimmy Allen hit a three-run double in a four-run fourth inning and helped move the Mustangs win 5-1. The victory moved the Cal Poly’s record to 9-1 on the season. The team plays a midweek series against Holy Cross on Tuesday and Wednesday before traveling to Kansas State on Friday for a three-game set.
Softball
After starting the Easton Invitational with a 10-3 win over Indiana on Friday, the Cal Poly softball team dropped its next four games. In their four losses, the Mustangs combined for six runs, while giving up 34. The team jumped out to a 1-0 lead over Wisconsin on Sunday, but the Badgers answered with two runs in the second. Neither team got on the board for the remainder of the game as the Mustangs fell to 5-14-1 on the year.