The Broncos outlasted visiting Sonoma State 81-73 in a double overtime thriller Thursday evening.
Cal Poly was led by senior point guard Jordan Ogundiran, who had 19 points and five rebounds.
“He was huge,” junior William Christmas said about Ogundiran. “Obviously he’s one of our better players and we expect a lot from him. It was huge for us to have a game where he broke out and was able to get us going early by scoring and passing.”
At the midway point of the first half, Dwight Ramos dished a pass to Ogundiran, who nailed the three and put the Broncos up 17-12.
CPP held an 8-point lead, but a few turnovers and missed shots led to a 14-4 run by the Seawolves to put them up by two at halftime.
Cal Poly found itself down by six early in the second half, but Justin Young swung the ball to Ogundiran who knocked down a deep 3-pointer and was fouled in the act of shooting for a potential 4-point play.
Ogundiran missed the free throw, but crashed the board and got his own rebound which led to another 3-point basket from Christmas.
Christmas finished the game with 15 points and six rebounds.
Late in the second, emotions were running high.
Off a missed basket, Ogundiran grabbed the offensive rebound and Gilbert Wesley of Sonoma State got his hands on the ball as well. Both players were holding onto the ball as they fell to the ground and refused to let go even after whistles were blown.
The two players had to be separated and after discussing it, the refs hit both Ogundiran and Wesley with technical fouls and they were both ejected from the game.
With six minutes still remaining in regulation and down by five, the Broncos had to weather the storm without their starting point guard.
That wasn’t a problem for sophomore guard Phoenix Shackelford, who knocked down back-to-back threes in less than a minute to tie the game at 54 apiece with just 4:17 remaining.
“I was just being aggressive,” Shackelford said. “They always tell me to be aggressive even when I’m being passive. They just drill it in me to stay aggressive and trust your basketball.”
Shackelford had 13 points and four steals off the bench for the Broncos.
The game was tied at 59 with just 11 seconds remaining when Sonoma State called a timeout.
The crowd was on their feet. Cal Poly would inbound the ball and put it in the hands of Christmas who got a pretty good look, but couldn’t get the shot to fall, which would send the game into overtime.
Shakelford opened things up by knocking down a jumper inside the paint.
Once again, defense turned into offense for the Broncos as Shakelford got the steal and was fouled where he would go 1 for 2 at the stripe.
CPP had 22 points off of the Seawolves’ 29 turnovers for the night.
The score was 65-65 and Christmas drove to the paint where he was met with a hard foul.
He was put on the line with just 0.9 seconds left with a chance to close out the game.
Christmas missed both free throws, however, and time ran out, which led to another five minutes of basketball.
“He’s our top region guy,” head coach Greg Kamansky said. “He’s really good at the end of games so we’re going to go to him win or lose. We got what we wanted and he’s usually a very good free throw shooter, but tonight it didn’t happen. He’s a tough kid and he’ll bounce back.”
The crowd was still standing as the ref threw the ball up in center court for the start of double OT.
Mason Dickerson came up huge for the Broncos in double OT as he hit two back-to-back threes on one end and came up with a huge block on the defensive end.
Cal Poly outscored Sonoma State 16-8 and came out on top with an 81-73 win.
“Our bench really saved us tonight,” coach Kamansky said. “They did a really good job and that’s why we’re a team.”
The bench scored 39 of Cal Poly’s 81 points and came up huge late.
Chris Sullivan had 13 points and seven rebounds, while Dickerson added eight points of his own, six of which came in double OT.
The Broncos’ second game took place on Saturday as they took on San Francisco State.
The game was televised on ESPN as Cal Poly earned a 64-56 victory over the Gators.
Christmas led the team with 16 points. Ogundiran added 11, while Dwight Ramos poured in 10.
The Broncos will look to continue their three-game winning streak as they head to Cal State Monterey Bay on Thursday before going up against Cal State East Bay Saturday at 3 p.m.
