Down by one with 15 seconds remaining, Josiah Davis was in no man’s land.
As the clock ticked down, Cal Poly Basketball applied the full court trap and got Davis, a CSUN guard, to leave his feet.
Peter Bandelj read it perfectly on the backside, swiping the weak pass and was sent to the free throw line after being fouled.
Bandelj sank both free throws, but a last second basket from CSUN sank the Mustangs comeback attempt 97-96 on Thursday.
If Cal Poly and CSUN walked onto the Mott Athletics Center floor with running shoes on instead of basketball shoes, no one would have been surprised.
The Mustangs (9-15, 5-7 Big West) and the Matadors (14-10, 7-5 Big West) are the No. 2 and No. 1 teams respectively in pace on Kenpom.com.
It was as advertised, more akin to a track meet than a basketball game. Both teams were racing from end to end and putting up shots as fast as they got down to the other end..
“It’s interesting that we have the two fastest tempo’s but we’re doing it in different ways,” Head Coach Mike DeGeorge said. “They are not pushing the ball up the floor to the same extreme as us. They play fast off of turnovers and they just score quick because they have really quick guards who go by people.”
Cal Poly started the game off strong, holding an early advantage with the help of some hot shooting early.
No team could get an extended run going, but CSUN was able to chip away at the Mustang lead.
A trio of triples by Larry Hughes II gave the Matadors a nine point lead late in the first half but a couple of baskets by the Mustangs halted the momentum as they headed into the break down by just four points.
CSUN came out of halftime and it felt like they sank any shot they took. They extended their lead to as large as 16 points and threatened to run away with the game.
Cal Poly buckled down, and some timely shot making kept the Matadors from coasting to an easy victory.
“I wouldn’t say we came out flat,” DeGeorge said. “We’re just a young group and we started pressing a little bit early in that second half and it led to some bad turnovers.
After hanging back by double digit points for most of the second half, the Mustangs made their move with seven minutes to play.
A 9-2 run by Cal Poly cut the lead to just three points, and forced a Matador timeout.
“They got on a run at the beginning of the second half … we turned the ball over a couple of times,” sophomore forward Hamad Mousa said. “With the media time out we were just like ‘come on we’ll get out there and fight together’,”
Momentum is one of those tangible things that isn’t measurable by a stat, some discount it as not real even, but the energy and vibe had shifted in Mott Gym.
The Mustangs finally took the lead with less than a minute to go. Bandelj went coast to coast after a steal to cut the lead to one, then got the steal and foul to take the lead with 9 seconds remaining.
“My mentality is, when we get to those points in the game just get stops first and the offense will come,” Bandelj said. “I was just trying to impact the game on the defensive side.”
It was too much time, Davis atoned for his mistake by making a straight line drive to the basket then finding a cutting Matador to take the lead. Cayden Ward’s last second attempt couldn’t fall and CSUN stole a crucial game in the Big West race.
Mousa followed up his career high 34 points last time against CSUN with 33 points in this game. Bandelj added 20 points and five assists.
Cal Poly travels to face UC Davis Saturday, Feb. 7, at 2 p.m. inside the Pavillion.
