The Big West Conference Championships rolled on as No. 3 UC Riverside faced No. 7 Cal Poly in Henderson, Nev. on March 13. The Highlanders, favored by 4.5 points in one Fanduel Sportsbook, fell 96-83 to the Mustangs who have won 10 of their last 14 games.
Cal Poly kicked the scoring off with five quick points by graduate guard/forward Owen Koonce. The Mustang’s leading scorer hit an easy layup and a three from the top of the key to take a 5-0 lead.
UC Riverside’s early drought was short-lived, however, as redshirt sophomore guard Barrington Hargress, the Highlanders’ leading scorer, answered quickly with a left-wing three off the catch to get Riverside on the board. Both teams went scoreless for several minutes, struggling to find easy shots and committing multiple turnovers.
Eventually, Cal Poly graduate point guard Jarred Hyder broke the dry spell with a left-corner triple off an assist from senior guard Isaac Jessup. The Mustangs soon got inside, with junior power forward Aaron Price Jr. getting inside for an easy layup.
On the other end, Riverside redshirt junior guard Isaiah Moses answered with a two-point jumper. Redshirt freshman guard Parker Strauss added to Riverside’s mini run, hitting a floater from the middle of the key.
Both teams settled into a defensive battle for several minutes, but Hargress ended Riverside’s scoring slump with a tough turnaround midrange jumper. Cal Poly’s freshman guard Peter Bandelj hit back-to-back threes, while Riverside’s redshirt sophomore forward Kaleb Smith responded with a hook shot.
Cal Poly’s hot streak continued, with Koonce getting back on the board with a putback layup, followed by another Bandelj three — his third of the half on just four attempts. With just under eight minutes in the first half, Cal Poly had Riverside on alert with a 23-11 lead.
Both teams traded goals while Moses caught fire, scoring 11 points, including two threes, in a three-minute span. Cal Poly kept Riverside at bay when Price Jr. pushed the lead back out to eight for the Mustangs.
Despite Cal Poly’s onslaught, Moses continued to carry the load for Riverside. A tough and-one layup gave him his 13th point of the night with five minutes left in the half. Hargress eventually joined in on the fun, going left to right across the key on a layup for his third make of the half.
Price Jr. continued to excel on offense for Cal Poly, getting another easy layup before Moses continued his onslaught on San Luis Obispo with a steal and score.
The half closed relatively slowly, with a steady stream of freethrows coming for both teams, but Hyder electrified the crowd by connecting on a deep three for Cal Poly to end the half with a 45-36 lead for the Mustangs.
Hargress ignited the Highlander offense early in the second half, hanging in the air on a baseline drive and finishing tough with his right hand. Jessup responded with what appeared to be an accidental tip-in off a missed Cal Poly three as the guard attempted to rebound the ball.
The Cal Poly offensive success from the first half continued as Hyder hit another three, this time a hanging pull from the left wing. Hargress responded for Riverside with a quick layup and a steal on the other end, leading to a transition triple from Moses, cutting the deficit to six. Riverside senior guard/forward Niyi Olabode continued the three-point surge with a trey-ball from the right wing off the catch to bring the Highlanders within three points.
Koonce got fouled as he tried his own three. He hit all three freethrows, bringing his total on the night to 15. Hargress followed with two dazzling lay-ins. Strauss soon tied the game with a transition layup, falling into the camera well and riling up the UCR crowd behind the Highlander bench.
Following a UCR timeout, Smith hit a big triple for the Highlanders to stifle Cal Poly’s momentum. However, Koonce quickly stopped the burst of energy from UCR with his third triple of the night. Hyder then continued this barrage from deep, hitting his fourth of the night after a stagnant offensive possession from Cal Poly.
Bandelj made an impact by finding Jessup on a cut for an easy strong side layup. With just over 10 minutes remaining, Riverside was on upset watch, down 67-58.
Hargress would not let the Highlanders fall out of the game, exchanging baskets with Hyder in the second half. Bandelj finally joined in on the second-half scoring, hitting his fifth three of the night on his first shot attempt of the period.
Moses, as he had all night, came back with a punch of his own. This time, it was a high-off-the-glass spinner that floated softly off the backboard and through the net. Cal Poly met the resistance with an absurd personal 9-0 run by Ward, who hit three straight threes, holding off multiple tough buckets from Moses.
Sparks flew when Koonce rejected a Moses layup, then stared him down, resulting in a technical foul and two Moses free throw makes.
In the face of adversity, Cal Poly looked to Jessup for one last dagger, and he delivered. The Mustangs’ third-leading scorer on the night hit a deep three from the left wing, ending the tournament’s No. 3 seed’s season.
Courtesy of a standout three-headed performance by Hyder, Jessup and Bandelj, Cal Poly will dance for another day. The Mustang’s win sets up a semifinals showdown with UC Irvine on March 14 with a trip to the Big West Championship on the line.
Postgame, Cal Poly head coach Mike DeGeorge spoke about his team’s mindset heading into its third consecutive high-stakes matchup.
“We want the game fast,” DeGeorge said at the postgame press conference. “We just want to get 40 more minutes of just [a] high-tempo game played at our pace.”
Cal Poly fell to No 2. UC Irvine 96-78 on March 14, ending a Cinderella tournament run for the Big West’s No. 7 team.
Jacob Ramos is a 2024-2025 Managing Editor. He can be reached at jacobtr@uci.edu.
Edited by Jaheem Conley and Jack Fedor