POMONA - The Cal Poly Pomona men's basketball team led 50-44 late but went cold from there in taking a tough 62-52 overtime defeat against No. 4 Cal State San Marcos in a tight California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) battle Thursday night inside Kellogg Arena.
With the result, CPP falls to 7-5 overall and 3-5 in the CCAA. Conference-leading Cal State San Marcos remains one of three perfect squads nationally in the NCAA Division II, now at 13-0 overall and 9-0 in league play.
Fifth-year senior guard
Phoenix Shackelford became the 17th student-athlete in program history to reach the 1,000-point milestone with his first basket of the game late in the first half. The Fairfield product caught fire and totaled 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting over a span of 6:31 around the halftime interval. He finished the game with 16 points. It was also the 100th appearance of Shackelford's career, having never missed a contest since arriving on the Pomona campus.
It was the first home activity for the Broncos in over a month and a half, since a 74-64 loss to another top-10 CCAA foe in then-eighth-ranked Chico State back on Dec. 4. They had three home games wiped out earlier this month due to COVID-19 health and safety protocols.
Dane Erikstrup's right-wing three-pointer off a short pass by
BJ Standley got the Broncos on the board just over two minutes into the contest. CSUSM scored eight points around that, six by big man Joel Mensah, for the early 8-3 lead at the initial media timeout.
Baskets inside by
Tay Aubry-Thomas and
Tavian Henderson, off nice feeds from Shackelford and Aubry-Thomas, respectively, came around a solitary Cougar free throw and left the visitors with a slim 9-7 edge at the under-12 timeout.
A second Erikstrup triple gave the Broncos their second one-point lead, but on the ensuing CSUSM possession, Mensah, who had just reentered the game at the break, got the bucket to snap a string of 4:57 without a field goal. True freshman
Caleb Nelson grabbed two offensive rebounds and got the tip-in on the latter for a 14-13 CPP edge. The Cougars answered with a Donovan Watkins floater in the lane before the under-eight timeout as the lead continued to change hands.
With a minute and a half to go in the half, Shackelford got the fortuitous bounce off Erikstrup's long-range miss, and went up with the offensive rebound for an easy lay-in to give him his first two points of the night, and exactly that milestone 1,000 points for his career in the green and gold. CSUSM took a 27-23 advantage into the locker rooms.
The low-scoring first half featured 10 lead changes and three tie scores late.
After scoring his first four points in the final 1:36 of the first half, Shackelford rolled that right on into the second. He grabbed a steal and drilled a left-wing three-pointer to open the second-half scoring. After another Mensah bucket inside, Erikstrup knocked down a smooth fadeaway jumper and two CPP possessions later, it was Shackelford again with a made jumper as the Broncos regained the lead at 30-29. A Henderson steal and Shackelford bucket forced an early timeout out of Cal State San Marcos. Erikstrup's nifty no-look pass off the rebound of a blocked Standley shot, found Standley for a baseline jumper from the right side and a five-point cushion at 34-29.
Moments later, Shackelford caught a crosscourt Standley pass in stride and was true on the pull-up triple to give him 10 points over the first five minutes of the period. Aubry-Thomas' tip-in from a Henderson miss gave CPP its first double-digit advantage of the night at 43-33 at the under-12 timeout.
Following that basket, neither team could connect from the field, combining to go 0-for-5 from the floor with seven free throws, for 3:55, until Blake Seits' three-point play coming out of the under-eight timeout that pulled the Cougars back to within just two at 44-42. Erikstrup's immediate layup ended CPP's run without a field goal at 4:21.
Moments later, Shackelford benefited from some more fortune underneath the opposing basket, concluding a sequence that saw three offensive rebounds by his side, with another easy layup and 48-44.
With CPP still clinging to a 50-46 lead, Jayce McCain's two free throws made it a one-possession game with 1:47 to go in regulation. A Bronco turnover and Mensah bucket knotted the game for a fourth time at 50-50.
Erikstrup had his baseline jumper blocked by Mensah on the other end, but the Broncos then put together a great defensive stand and took the ball away with the shot clock winding down, calling timeout with 14.9 seconds to go. On that final trip, Erikstrup grabbed the rebound of a Nelson miss, and banked in a shot from the left edge of the lane, but it came just after the buzzer, bringing on overtime.
The extra session began with a Seits jumper, and the redshirt senior went on to hit back-to-back three-pointers to make it 59-51 with 1:50 to go and effectively end the drama.
The Broncos were outscored 18-2 over the last 2:36 of regulation and the five-minute overtime, shooting 0-for-10 from the floor during that finishing stretch.
Shackelford's fellow senior, Henderson, reached a milestone of his own on the night, sharing the game high of 10 rebounds to give him exactly 500 for his career, with 311 of them coming over his first two years at Saint Martin's University. The Vallejo native had four points and three assists. Erikstrup wound up with 16 points and six boards. Aubry-Thomas collected nine points, three rebounds, one assist and a blocked shot off the bench. Standley dished out a game-high five assists.
Mensah led all players with 19 points (9-12 FG), a game-high 12 of them coming on 6-of-7 shooting in the first half. He grabbed four rebounds and had the one block late. Seits finished with 18 points, remarkably after going scoreless over the first 27:34. His two triples in overtime were in fact the Cougars' only two made three-pointers in the game, as they went just 2-of-16 from long range. McCain posted a double-double with 10 points and 10 boards.
Cal Poly Pomona is scheduled to continue what is now a three-game home stand, next Thursday night, Jan. 27, against area rival Cal State Dominguez Hills (8-6, 5-3 CCAA). This past Tuesday, the Broncos had a fourth home contest for this season canceled due to COVID-19 health and safety protocols, with this Saturday's primetime matchup with Cal State LA called off. Next Thursday's tipoff against the Toros at Kellogg Arena is slated for 7:30 p.m., following the women's game at 5:30 p.m. Please click
here for CPP Athletics' latest basketball spectator policy.
All CCAA basketball contests throughout this 2021-22 season are streaming live online via the CCAA Network at
www.ccaanetwork.com. Fans may also download the CCAA Network app on your iOS or Android smartphone, tablet, or through web streaming devices such as Amazon Fire, Roku or Apple TV. The CCAA Network has moved to a subscription-based model at just $9.95 per month. Subscribers have access to all CCAA broadcasts, both live and on-demand.
Bronco Bits: Cal Poly Pomona is 424-171 (.713) overall and 312-124 (.716) in CCAA play under 22nd-year head coach and record five-time CCAA Coach of the Year
Greg Kamansky ... Kamansky sent out a fifth different starting lineup this season, with seniors
Tavian Henderson,
Phoenix Shackelford and
BJ Standley joined by true freshmen
Dane Erikstrup and
Jaden Winfield ... Henderson reached double figures in rebounds for the fourth time this season and seventh time for his college days ... The Broncos are 4-2 at home and 1-2 in overtime in 2021-22 ... CPP still leads the all-time series, 6-4 (3-3 in Pomona), all under Kamansky ... The Broncos had won five straight meetings (two in a row in Pomona) entering the day, with two-game season sweeps in both 2018-19 and 2019-20 since a 69-64 home loss on Feb. 6, 2018 ... With Kamansky in charge, the Broncos are 26-30 against ranked foes (14-10 at home; 1-3 this season), 9-16 against top-10 opponents (3-7 at home; 0-2 this season), and 4-11 versus top-five squads (1-4 at home) ... In the CCAA preseason coaches' poll, CPP was picked to finish third with one first-place vote, while CSUSM was favored for seventh ... The sides are scheduled to meet again in San Marcos on Saturday, Feb. 12, at 3 p.m. ...
Milestone Watch: Shackelford has 1,014 career points and Standley is at 945 points (581 at Saint Martin's) ... Henderson has 500 rebounds (311 at Saint Martin's).
