By Joseph Rodriguez, Feb. 21, 2023
On Feb. 16, the Cal Poly Pomona men’s basketball team split the season series with Sonoma State with a 60-50 loss.
Head coach Greg Kamansky spoke about the biggest takeaway from his team regarding their double-digit loss.
“Sonoma played well, give them credit,” said Kamansky. “They have a guy who’s the leading scorer in the conference and was pretty tough to stop for us. We just went into a lull scoring-wise in the second half and that cost us.”
The Broncos had a good first half of the game as they went back and forth with the Seawolves. Considering the fact that CPP had only eight players available for this contest, the team showed a lot of fight.
Even though the Seawolves’ Jaylen Wells started on fire with 16 first-half points, the Broncos still kept the game within reach as Sonoma State was never able to gain any momentum.
One thing the Broncos were able to do well was take advantage of the Seawolves’ early mistakes as points off of turnovers were one of the major factors in consistently bringing CPP back in the game.
The Broncos connected on three shots from beyond the arc in the half, which helped them build a lead as big as seven points before the Seawolves had a chance to bounce back quickly.
Sonoma State went on a quick run to close out the first half with some momentum which was capped off by a tough four-point play by Wells. Broncos’ freshman guard Bam Johnson quickly replied with a fastbreak layup to end the half down by just four points.
Freshman forward Derrick Claxton had a great start coming off the bench as he led his team in scoring during the first half.
The second half of the game showed a different outcome for CPP. Their offense couldn’t establish a rhythm against the Seawolves, especially from 3-point range, as the Broncos made just one of their 10 3-pointers in the second half.
Freshman guard, Shyheim Parm talked about his team’s struggle to make shots throughout the rest of the game.
“Defensively, it was more of just the zone they were in,” said Parm. “Offensively, we just couldn’t get down the plays we wanted to do, and we just had bad communication.”
The Seawolves eventually took control of the Broncos’ lack of offense to grow their lead to 10 with under nine minutes to go. Some of their momentum came when Julian Bryant stole the ball from CPP for a fastbreak dunk.
The Broncos weren’t able to establish any type of comeback for the conclusion of the game as Wells couldn’t be stopped. The leading scorer in the California Collegiate Athletic Association would finish the game with a 30-point double-double.
For CPP, the three leading scorers were Jaden Winfield with 12, Claxton with 11, and Parm with nine as all three players were able to hit shots from beyond the arc during the game.
The Broncos now have an overall record of 11-12 (8-11 in conference play) for the year, and they are only one game back of a spot in the conference tournament, trailing Cal State Monterey Bay.
With three games left in the regular season, sophomore forward Caleb Nelson spoke about his optimism for the team being able to make a playoff push.
“We’re treating these last few games like playoff games,” said Nelson. “We’re optimistic we can make a push, and we’re emphasizing the scout team in practice to put ourselves in a position to be successful.”
You can catch the Broncos’ final three games of the regular season on the CCAA Network. Their next matchup will be at home versus Stanislaus State on Feb. 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Feature image courtesy of CPP Athletics