Cal Bears guard Andrej Stojakovic (2) takes the ball down court against the Cal Poly Mustangs on Thu Nov 7, 2024 (Cal Bears X photo)
Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024
Haas Pavilion, Berkeley, California
Cal Poly Mustangs 73 (0-2)
California Golden Bears 91 (2-0)
By Stephen Ruderman
After falling behind early, the Bears came back to take the lead in the first half, and they pulled away in the second half on their way to a 91-73 win over Cal Poly.
After an 86-73 win over CSU Bakersfield to open the season on Monday night, the Bears welcomed the Cal Poly Mustangs to Haas Pavilion tonight. The Mustangs opened their season across the bay with an 86-78 loss to the University of San Francisco Tuesday night.
The Mustangs wasted no time getting to work tonight. Mike Riniker made a layup, and Isaac Jessup hit a three ball to stake Cal Poly to an early 5-0 lead.
DJ Campbell made a layup to put the Bears on the board, but Jessup hit another three, and Ethan Menzias hit a three of his own to make it 11-2. Cal Poly would make it 17-5 a few minutes later with 14:01 to go, and the Bears needed to get things under control before this game got out of hand.
As the game approached the halfway mark of the first half, the Bears started to chip away at Cal Poly’s lead. Jovan Blacksher Jr. hit a three to make it 17-8, and that would start an 11-2 run for the Bears that would close the Mustangs’ lead to 19-16.
The game would remain steady over the next few minutes. Rytis Petraitis was fouled and hit both from the line to close the gap to 24-22, and two minutes later, he hit a three to give the Bears their first lead of the night.
The Bears then went on another 11-2 run to jump out to a 35-26 lead with 2:27 to go. However, the Mustangs suddenly regained the momentum and went on an 8-2 run to close Cal’s lead to 37-34. The Bears would go into the half up 39-35.
Come the second half, the Bears put the game away. Andrej Stojakovic hit a three 36 seconds in, and Cal scored 12 unanswered points to blow the game open, as they now led 51-35. The rest of the game was smooth sailing, and the Bears won it 91-73.
Blacksher once again led the Bears in scoring tonight with 18 points, as he was 6-for-13 in field goals, and 4-for-7 from beyond the arc. Stojakovic scored 15 points, though he struggled and missed a lot of shots, as he was 5-for-17 in field goals, and just 2-for-9 from beyond the arc.
Petraitis scored 13 points going 3-for-4 in field goals and hitting his only three. The bulk of Petraitis’ scoring came on free throws, as he was 6-for-8 from the line. B.J. Omot scored 10; Christian Tucker and Lee Dort scored eight; and Joshua Ola-Joseph and Jeremiah Wilkinson scored six.
The Bears are off to a 2-0 start for the first time in five years, and they will have the next five days off as a nice reward. Then, they will hit the road for the first time this season, as they will travel to Nashville, Tennessee to play the Vanderbilt Commodores on Wednesday, and then they will return to California to play the USC Trojans down in Los Angeles next Saturday.
Tipoff next Wednesday will be at 7 p.m. CST/5 p.m. PST.










