Cal Poly Pomona men notch first win 77-66

POMONA – Cal Poly Pomona men’s basketball coach Greg Kamansky insists he didn’t have to rattle any cages. Sure his Broncos were coming off a loss to San Francisco State, the team picked to finish last in the CCAA. But he didn’t think throwing a tirade would help.

It proved to be the right approach as the Broncos turned back a tenacious Monterey Bay 77-66 in CCAA play Saturday at Kellogg Gymnasium.

“I’ve done enough screaming and yelling,” he said. “Teams aren’t always going to respond to that. I just tried to emphasize the little things you have to do to play winning basketball. We actually did those things tonight.”

The Broncos recent fortunes were helped by the clutch performance of senior guard Angelo Tsagarakis. The transfer from Oregon State hit 10 of 13 shots from the field, including a 7-for-10 showing from long distance.

The Broncos (1-3, 1-1) had their biggest lead of the contest at 54-39 with 11:36 to go. But the pesky Otters came back and cut the deficit to 58-54 with 6:04 to play on a free throw by D’Shon Cannon.

Then Tsagarakis took over, hitting the first of five buckets in the next five minutes, four of which were 3-pointers. His first in that span boosted the lead to 61-54.

“Tonight I felt like I was in a good rhythm and the good shots were coming,” he said. “Sometimes I get a little too eager to make things happen.”

Monterey Bay (1-5, 0-2) was equal to the task much of the night. Of the nine times the Broncos connected for 3-pointers, the Otters answered with a bucket on their end on the next possession seven times. Four times they answered with a 3-pointer of their own.

The visitors finally ran out of answers. Tsagarakis hit his last bucket of the night, this one a two-pointer with 47 seconds to play, giving his team a 73-66 advantage.

The Otters missed their next attempt and Larry Gordon came up with the loose ball to secure the first win of the season.

The Broncos shot 57.4 percent (31-for-54). Tsagarakis ended up with 27 points with Gordon contributing 16 points and 10 rebounds. Donnelle Booker chipped in with 10 points, six rebounds and two blocks despite playing on a sprained ankle.

“We came out very determined tonight,” Tsagarakis added. “We knew we had to come back and play with energy and play with confidence and we did that tonight. Even when they made a shot, we knew we were going to come back and make one on our end.”

Monterey shot 49 percent (25-for-51) with Augie Johnston netting 18 and Joe Mitchell 16. Fontana native Zach Von Pertz had seven off the bench.

“This was a step in the right direction,” Kamansky said. “Before it was bad shot selection, no fluidity, no purpose on offense. Guys were just running around out there like they didn’t
know what to do. We have to build on this.”

The Broncos will have more than two weeks to get healthy and work on their flaws, with the next game not coming until Dec. 18 when they head to Las Vegas to face Western Washington and Central Washington in consecutive nights.

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