HENDERSON — With three UC Riverside players surrounding the rebound, Cayden Ward broke through, dove on a loose ball and swiped it back into play.
Issac Jessup grabbed the ball and immediately swung it to Peter Bandelj, who stared down the 3-point shot as it sank through the net.
One could call it luck and a little bit of hustle that the freshman Ward was in the right place to tip the ball or that his fellow freshman, Bandelj, a sub-30% 3-point shooter, was able to knock down five 3-pointers, but it’s no mistake: Everything fell into line in No. 7 Cal Poly’s 96-83 win over No. 3 UC Riverside, the team’s first quarterfinals win since 2014, the year they last won the Big West Championship.
Ward was a dual-sport athlete in football and basketball and recruited by the staff because of his tenacity and aggressiveness. His hustle showed as Ward scrapped and clawed for 13 rebounds to go along with 14 points.
Ward also electrified Lee’s Family Forum when he made three consecutive 3-pointers with six minutes left to keep a double-digit lead over the Highlanders.
Bandelj is a skilled guard who has an innate ability to find ways to get to the basket, but the coaches also loves his competitive fire and confidence. Despite a poor shooting year and the Highlanders matching up a big man against Bandelj to dare him to shoot, he let it fly in a do-or-die game and set a career-high in 3-point makes.
Looking up and down the roster, Mike DeGeorge and his coaching staff have maximized value at every corner. From the freshmen to sixth-year graduate student Jarred Hyder, DeGeorge has put his players in positions to succeed.
Hyder entered the transfer portal after last season, but opted to stay after he and the coaching staff believed their play style and interests were aligned.
It’s worked out as well. Hyder set the single-season program record in 3-point makes with 95 on the season. He scored 18 points and shot 4 of 8 from distance.
Owen Koonce and Jessup are two more players DeGeorge was able to develop, but at a previous stop.
Peter Bandelj releases a shot in Cal Poly’s 96-83 win over No. 3 UC Riverside in the Big West basketball championships at Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson, Nevada, on March 13, 2025. Cal Poly Athletics
Both were walk-ons at the University of Colorado before transferring to Colorado Mesa. Not only are both players smart and know how to fit into the team’s system, but they compete on defense and on the glass.
At 6 foot 1, Jessup corraled four rebounds, including one left-handed tip-in.
Koonce, who earned Big West Honorable Mentions, has taken another leap this year as the main scorer. He totaled 20 points before he fouled out on a technical foul late in the game after blocking a shot straight into the ground and staring down the Highlanders’ Isaiah Moses.
Despite playing the night before in an 86-76 win over UC Davis, the Mustangs had the energy to jump out to an early lead.
They got extra possessions and flew around the court on defense to slow down a skilled and tall UC Riverside team. While the Highlanders stayed within single-digits most of the game, the Mustangs never trailed in the game.
They withstood a 51-point performance from the Highlanders’ backcourt of Big West leading scorer Barrington Hargress and Honorable Mention recipient Moses.
At one point, Riverside cut the lead to a tie, but Cal Poly made timely plays to pull back ahead.
Isaac Jessup celebrates a shot in Cal Poly’s 96-83 win over No. 3 UC Riverside in the Big West basketball championships at Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson, Nevada, on March 13, 2025. Cal Poly Athletics
It’s easy to make comparisons between the 2014 Cal Poly team, which won the Big West and went on to March Madness. They both were the No. 7 seed and caught fire at the right time.
However, the tournament format is different now.
The Nos. 3 and 4 seeds got first-round byes, while the 1 and 2 seeds advance straight to the semifinals. That means the Mustangs must win four straight and are at a severe rest disadvantage. As Cal Poly battled against UC Davis and UC Riverside, Cal Poly’s next matchup, No. 2 UC Irvine, hasn’t played a playoff game yet.
It’s an uphill battle, but the team is hitting its stride at the best time.
Throughout the year, during the losing streak and after beating Stanford in non-conference, the message has been the same: play meaningful games in March.
When asked if there was a level of surrealness or being surprised, DeGeorge quickly responded, “No.”
“We feel very confident,” he said. “We’re very confident against anybody in the league,and we’re just coming in putting 40 good minutes together. If we play the way, we’re capable of, we can get anybody in this tournament.”
The Mustangs look to keep the Big West tournament magic alive Friday night against UC Irvine in an 8:30 game televised on ESPN 2.
Cal Poly women eliminated by UC San Diego, but a culture is created
Annika Shah spent her freshman year with Cal Poly under a different coaching staff. She described the direction of the team as a “chicken with their head cut off.”
In her sophomore year, the university hired Shanele Stires, a former WNBA player with experience at all levels of college basketball. She immediately demanded another level of intensity and competitiveness.
“The organization this coaching staff puts into every little thing is pretty remarkable,” Shah said. “This program focuses on growth from an individual, but also as a team.”
Nevertheless, on Thursday, the Mustangs saw their season end when they fell to UC San Diego 59-54 in a game where they led for 38 minutes. Sumayah Sugapong scored 29 points for the Tritons to lead them to the win and the Big West Championship semifinals.
“I was really proud of the way that we fought and the way we competed,” Stires said. “I thought we executed the game plan beautifully for the majority of the game. But at the end of the game, we just didn’t have enough offense in the tank to really close the game out.”
Annika Shah drives with the ball in Cal Poly’s 59-54 loss to UC San Diego in the Big West basketball championships at Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson, Nevada, on March 13, 2025. Ian Billings
When Stires took over the program in 2022, the team was coming off a three-win season. Every year since, it has reached the Big West Championships, including the last two years where only the top eight in the conference make the tournament.
Stires said when she arrived, she could tell there was a lack of discipline and understanding of what it takes to be a successful program.
“We’ve been able to pump in a lot of love, a lot of togetherness and a lot of joy and passion in pursuing excellence in the game,” Stires said.
Shah said when she was younger, she didn’t have a big voice within the team. Now, she’s one of the most vocal people in the program.
“The confidence that this coaching staff has established in each of us, individually, but every little detail that goes into the growth of this program is what makes it so special,” Shah said.
At first, the Mustangs’ defense flustered the Tritons to the tune of 24 first-half points, but Sugapong was able to find some momentum on offense in the second half.
Ashley Hiraki yells directions in Cal Poly’s 59-54 loss to UC San Diego in the Big West basketball championships at Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson, Nevada, on March 13, 2025. Ian Billings
A reverse layup from Sugapong gave the Tritons a lead with 39 seconds left, and the team held on.
Shah had an open look from 3-point range the possession before, but the shot was off. Sidney Richard, who scored 13 points, missed a layup following Sugapong’s score, and the Tritons secured the rebound.
A senior-heavy team, Cal Poly will look to younger talent on the roster to fill the production. However, in the age of the transfer portal, Stires wants to build from the ground up.
“From a recruiting standpoint, we’ve made the decision to be a little bit counter-intuitive,” Stires said. “It’s not that we don’t want to go after transfer kids or portal kids, but we got into coaching because we love seeing kids develop over time.”
Moving forward, Stires says the team needs to build out its depth in order to make a postseason run.
“It just looked like we weren’t as fresh and as sharp as we needed to be,” Stires said. “Strategically, you’ve got to take all that stuff in, and you’ve got to kind of plan moving forward in terms of addressing those things.”
This story was originally published March 14, 2025 at 10:23 AM.
