Head Coach John Smith has roots all over Riverside, CA. After starting his coaching career at John W. North High School just a mile away, Smith coached at Riverside Community College, ten minutes from the UC Riverside campus, for a decade.
But the homecomings haven’t been friendly. As head coach of the Mustangs, Smith came into the contest 0-8 against the Highlanders.
It became 0-9 Thursday night as Cal Poly (4-13, 0-5 Big West) fell to UC Riverside (7-10, 2-3 Big West) 71-56 without Cal Poly’s leading scorers, senior guard Kobe Sanders and graduate guard Jarred Hyder, who missed the game due to injury.
They became even more shorthanded, at least for the first half, as sophomore forward Aaron Price Jr. picked up two offensive fouls within two minutes of tipoff and headed to the bench early.
Sophomore forward Cole Haller picked up a flagrant foul midway through the first half for a hit to a Highlander player’s head.
After being down by nine heading into halftime, an early 10-0 run in the second half for Cal Poly brought the deficit to three points, but that was quickly wiped away by Highlanders with a run of their own.
The game was relatively close throughout, with Riverside keeping a three or four-possession lead for almost all of the game and not truly pulling away until the final minutes of the contest.
Freshman guard Quentin Jones stepped into a familiar role as a leader on the court with both Sanders and Hyder out, filling up the stat sheet. Graduate forward Tuukka Jaakkola turned in his best performance this season, putting up 15 points in 21 minutes.
For the third straight game, Cal Poly was outrebounded by ten or more rebounds. UC Riverside had 15 offensive rebounds that they turned into 18 second-chance points.
It was another night where Cal Poly was super efficient from the field, shooting 43% from range and 42% from the field. The streaky nature of the offense has been a theme in Big West play; they haven’t shot on the same side of 35% from the field in back-to-back Big West contests.
If Hyder or Sanders can’t return soon, it accentuates an already major weakness on the offensive side of the ball. Cal Poly has scored a Big West-worst 61.8 points per game. The two upperclassmen guards account for 31.1 points per game in the conference slate. Players like Jones and Jaakkola will need to make the most of their newfound touches, while others like junior guard Hayden Jory will need to step up and fill the minutes efficiently.
The Mustangs’ next chance to get into the win column comes Saturday, Jan. 13, at Mott Athletics Center against the UC San Diego Tritons at 7 p.m.
