BELMONT, Calif. - With efficiency on offense and high energy on defense, the 18th-ranked Cal Poly Pomona men's basketball team pulled away late Friday for a 67-49 non-conference win at Notre Dame de Namur.
The host Argonauts cut the Broncos' second-half lead to six points about midway through the period but CPP finished the contest on a 20-8 run to wrap up the win and improve its season record to 3-0. Meanwhile NDNU - the host of this two-day Thanksgiving Classic event - falls to 0-4 on the year.
CPP will complete this week's road trip with a Saturday 5 p.m. matchup against Fresno Pacific. It'll be a neutral-site game held at Walter Gleason Gym on the NDNU campus.
The Broncos got balanced scoring Friday as
Mitchel Anderson led the way with 13 points and eight rebounds.
DeRonn Scott and
Mohamed Fall added 12 points apiece while
Jordan Faison contributed nine points off the bench.
Possession efficiency played a key role in Friday's result as CPP turned the ball over just seven times while forcing 22 turnovers from the Argonauts.
Scott, a junior guard from Etiwanda, led the Broncos in that effort as he racked up a career-high six assists without committing a single turnover.
Terrence Drisdom wreaked havoc on the NDNU offense by racking up a career-best seven steals.
CPP jumped out to a 6-0 lead with back-to-back three-pointers from Scott and Anderson. The gap between the two teams stayed relatively close through the first half but a pair of baskets from Fall in the final few minutes of the period helped bump the Broncos' edge to 36-26 going into intermission.
To start the second half, NDNU's Steven Plantenburg knocked down a three-pointer to bring the lead back into single digits. That started the process of the Argonauts slowly chipping away at the margin and the closest they got was a six-point spread at the 9:06 mark after a Wesley White layup.
The Broncos' defense tightened up after that point though and held NDNU scoreless over the next five minutes and 20 seconds while CPP rolled out to a 9-0 run.
Barry Bell tossed in his first career three-pointer during that stretch to extend the Broncos' advantage back into double digits.
Drisdom put a pair of exclamation points on the victory with dunks on back-to-back possessions in the waning moments of the contest. Despite getting outrebounded 36-26, the Broncos kept their turnovers low and now have their undefeated record intact heading into Saturday's game against Fresno Pacific.
The Sunbirds of FPU hold a 3-2 mark this season and handed Simon Fraser its first loss of 2012-13 with an 84-64 result Friday in Belmont.
