Cal Poly falls to UCSB on buzzer-beater as Big West losing streak reaches 44 games

The week after defeating Stanford in non-conference play, Cal Poly head basketball coach Mike DeGeorge cautioned about calling the game a “signature win.”

The Mustangs had just picked up a victory against a Power 4 conference program for the first time in 10 years in a comeback win on the road.

But DeGeorge viewed it as another non-conference win, and he believed the team had a long way to go.

“We are just not consistently executing things,” DeGeorge said. “If you’d have told us at the beginning of the year that we would be 5-4 and had just beat Stanford, we’d be thrilled. If you told us how we were executing though, I would think that we were 0-9, to be honest with you.”

After the win, many of the persisting problems began to hurt the team: turnovers, fatigue due to an exhausting playstyle and lack of depth.

Now, since the Stanford win, Cal Poly has gone 1-8 without a win in Big West play, extending a regular season losing streak that has hung around the Mustangs’ neck for more than two years.

That dismal streak continued Saturday night against UC Santa Barbara in heartbreaking fashion in front of a soldout crowd at Mott Athletic Center as the Mustangs fell 75-72 on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Gauchos guard Stephan Swenson.

The Mustangs got off to another slow start and scored only 25 points in the first half.

However, their defense held the Gauchos to 34 points. In the second half, the Mustangs held a 47-41 advantage at one point, but it didn’t last.

Owen Koonce scored 22 of his 23 points in the second half, including the game-tying layup.

Freshman guard Peter Bandelj had a career game with 18 points and nine rebounds. Bandelj went on an individual 5-0 run at the end of the first half to cut the lead to nine. He also hit the 3-pointer to bring the game within one possession with 30 seconds left.

The Mustangs’ then secured a turnover on a jump ball in the backcourt, and Koonce drove to the rim for a game-tying layup.

But Swenson, who played in the NCAA Tournament last year with Stetson University, took his time walking down his defender before draining a step-back 3-pointer to rip the heart out of Mott Athletic Center. His shot released with only a tenth of a second left on the clock.

“We’re close,” Bandelj said after the game. “Our record doesn’t show it, but we’re way better than our record. We’re getting better game by game.”

In the past few games, the Mustangs took a step back against UC San Diego and the previous week against UC Irvine and Hawaii. But those games capped off a brutal month for the Mustangs in terms of competition, travel and health, following the Stanford game.

The team lost its starting backcourt in Jarred Hyder and Issac Jessup for the first two games of conference due to injuries sustained in the win over the Cardinal.

Then the team went 1-2 in a stretch against San Jose State, Denver and Omaha, where the Mustangs split two overtime games and lost by four points against Omaha on their second-longest road trip of the year.

To restart Big West play, the Mustangs faced the top three teams in the conference, according to the preseason poll, in UC Irvine, UC San Diego and UCSB along with a short turnaround road trip to Hawaii.

The struggle has left the Mustangs at 0-6 in Big West play, extending a multi-season losing streak to 44 games since they beat CSUN on Dec. 29, 2022. Cal Poly did win beat Long Beach State in the opening round of the 2023 Big West Conference Tournament.

After going 1-18 in conference play in 2022-23, Cal Poly went 0-20 last year. With the six losses this year, that runs the streak to 44 in a row.

“I think we’re playing better than what our record indicates,” DeGeorge said. “I’m just trying to get the team to stay focused on the process. I know that Cal Poly has this losing streak and all that, but none of that impacts us. What we need to know is that we are right there and we’re on the verge of really doing some great things.”

From the beginning, DeGeoge has tried to keep his team level through competitive games against Power 4 opponents and multiple overtime losses. He’s cautioned against overreaction in wins or losses.

As the Mustangs try to figure out a way to win games, the team is working on the margins to improve.

Depth has been a concern, but the team saw an outstanding game from a true freshman in Bandelj and started redshirt freshman Guzman Vasillic.

Cal Poly also lifted Cayden Ward’s redshirt to allow him to play. He converted a layup and an and-one off the bench. Backup forward Aaron Price Jr. led the team in scoring off the bench against the Anteaters.

The team’s core four players, Mac Riniker, Jarred Hyder, Issac Jessup and Koonce, are all able to put together high-level minutes but have trouble sustaining their level of play over a full game.

The Mustangs went to a different substitution pattern against the Gauchos by substituting five guys at a time in the first half with few overlapping players between the group.

The thought behind the adjustment was to prevent the starting group from getting too tired and allow the team to play at the pace it wants. The staff found it was too demanding to ask its key players to play at the pace and intensity they desire with their minute load.

The bench unit produced 31 points, but what else was encouraging was the 10 turnovers.

The Mustangs have turned the ball over by far the most in the conference and are one of the nation’s leaders in the stat category. However, they controlled the ball while still using their pace to generate offense and tire out opponents.

They also held the Gauchos to 75 points, which is 10 points below the Mustangs’ average of 85 points per game allowed, the fourth-worst mark in Division I.

While the team wasn’t able to pull out the win, there is still belief internally that the Mustangs can turn their season around.

Cal Poly next faces UC Davis on the road on Thursday.