Cayden Ward led the Cal Poly men’s basketball team with 16 points in a game against UC Irvine, where three Mustangs scored in double figures. Hamad Mousa contributed 15 points and reached a significant milestone by becoming only the second player in program history to score at least 600 points in a single season. Austin Goode added 13 points for Cal Poly.
Despite these efforts, Cal Poly lost to UC Irvine with a final score of 107-85 at the Bren Events Center. The Mustangs made 10 three-pointers but were outscored in the paint by UC Irvine, who also shot over 56 percent from the field and committed just five turnovers.
Mousa’s achievement came late in the first half when he scored on a jumper, joining Stuart Thomas (1990-91) as the only players to reach 600 points in one year for Cal Poly. At halftime, UC Irvine led by ten after building their advantage late in the first period.
In the second half, Cal Poly narrowed the gap to eight points on several occasions, including after a layup by freshman Ali Assran that brought the score to 73-65 with about twelve minutes left. However, UC Irvine responded with an extended run and kept control for the rest of the contest.
Cal Poly is set to conclude its regular season at home against Cal State Bakersfield on March 7. Before that game, senior Luka Tarlac will be honored. The team has secured its place as the No. 8 seed for the upcoming Big West Championship tournament scheduled for March 11-14.
With his performance Thursday, Mousa increased his season total to 608 points and needs just 51 more to surpass Stuart Thomas’s all-time single-season record of 659 points set during the 1990-91 campaign. Additionally, Mousa matched Kobe Sanders’s mark for second-most free throws made in a season (174) and is four away from tying Thomas’s program record from over three decades ago. His free throw percentage this year stands at eighth best all-time for Cal Poly.
“Mousa reached his historic milestone with two-and-a-half minutes remaining in the opening half, sinking a jumper in the lane to become the first and only player in program history since Stuart Thomas (1990-91) to reach 600 points in one year.”
