Cal Poly rides big first to half to road win over Utah

Cayden Ward scored 28 points to lead Cal Poly to a 92-85 win over Utah on Thursday in Salt Lake City.

Hamad Mousa added 26 points, Guzman Vasilic scored 13 points and Peter Bandelj tallied 11 points for Cal Poly (3-3).

Terrence Brown led Utah (5-1) with a game-high 29 points. Don McHenry added 16 points and Keanu Dawes notched 10 for the Utes.

After Mousa missed the previous Cal Poly game with a reported ankle injury, he had a perfect first half, making 6 of 6 field-goal attempts, including all three of his 3-point attempts.

The Mustangs shot 52% (9 of 17) from 3-point range in the opening half. From inside the arc they were just as effective (8 of 14). Conversely, Utah made just 4 of 13 baskets from 3-point range in the opening half.

Utah opened the game on a 5-0 run but Mousa answered with five of the next seven points to kick off a 7-0 Cal Poly run. A McHenry jumper tied the game at 7-7 but Bandelj and Vasilic hit back-to-back threes and the Mustangs took a lead they held for the rest of the game.

A Vasilic 3-pointer extended the Cal Poly lead to 48-33 with 2:49 to play in the first half. The Utes hung tough as a Brown dunk punctuated a 6-0 run to cut the Mustangs lead to 48-39.

But an Ali Assran dunk with 10 seconds to go gave the Mustangs a 50-39 halftime lead. It was the highest scoring first half of the season for Cal Poly.

Transition play helped the Utes trim the Cal Poly lead to 55-48 as they rallied with a 7-0 scoring spurt that Brown capped with a fast-break layup early in the second half.

A Brown layup pulled Utah within 76-74 with 5:57 to play but the Mustangs followed with a 12-2 outburst for an 88-76 on a pair of Ward free throws with two minutes left to put the game out of reach.

--Field Level Media