Cal Poly men’s basketball fell by a score of 60-48 to the University of San Francisco in their first away game of the season on Thursday, Nov. 10 at War Memorial Gym.
The Mustangs (1-1) dropped their first game of the young season while the Dons (2-0) remained unbeaten on the year.
Cal Poly was the underdog in this game, as USF was a No. 10 seed in last year’s NCAA tournament, but the Mustangs stood their ground and held a 27-24 lead at the end of the first half.
In those first 20 minutes, Cal Poly gave the Dons a hard time with their defense, limiting them to only 7-for-27 (25.93%) from the field. Senior guard Trevon Taylor was Cal Poly’s first-half leading scorer with five points.
After a promising Cal Poly, however, USF turned it up in the second half and showed why they came in as the favorites, outscoring the Mustangs 36-21 in the second half.
There were eight lead changes throughout the game and Cal Poly hung around until the closing minutes.
Khalil Shabazz’s 18 points for the Dons was too much to come back from as USF pulled away in crunch time by a score of 60-48.
Senior forward Alimamy Koroma led the Mustangs in scoring, dropping 15 points while adding eight rebounds.
Cal Poly will have to wait another week for their next game as they take on Stanford, headlined by potential first-round draft pick Harrison Ingram, on Friday, Nov. 18 at 9 p.m. inside Maples Pavillion.