Mustangs Hold Off Spartans Behind Career Night from Titchenal

It was the second time around, for the first time this year. Not yet in conference play, the Cal Poly men’s basketball team played San Jose State in the second half of a home-and-home series Saturday night.

In a game that might have best been described as “weird,” the Mustangs rode a scoring outburst from Matt Titchenal and held on for a 47-40 victory to sweep the season series versus the Spartans at the SJSU Events Center.

Titchenal, who didn’t see any playing time in four of the first eight games, checked in early in the first half and quickly provided a spark. The senior guard hit on both of his 3-point attempts in the first half during a 13-5 Mustangs run that put them up 27-19 at halftime.

Matt Titchenal scored a career-high 16 points against San Jose State on Saturday. Photo by Jamie Pereira

The Spartans hung tough in a second half that had its aesthetic challenges. After a 12-4 run by San Jose State cut the Mustang lead to two, Cal Poly once again looked to Titchenal to bail them out. Titchenal scored eight straight points for the Mustangs, including two 3-pointers and a monster tip-in, and extended the Mustangs’ lead to 39-32.

The Spartans would again cut the lead to two with under four minutes left. Once again, a Cal Poly senior restored order for the Mustangs. Will Taylor grabbed an offensive rebound off an Amaurys Fermin miss and the Mustangs’ lead was no less than four points the rest of the game.

“We tried to get two guys who could really shoot the ball in there at once,” said Mustangs head coach Joe Callero. We brought Matt Titchenal in off the bench thinking he was quick enough to defend, he’s a guy that we have confidence in as a senior, and he nailed down a shot or two, got some more confidence, and ends up going four for four and really from the offensive end, saving our bacon scoring 16 points.”

Titchenal, a product of the San Francisco Bay Area, had a large contingent at the game. His grandfather, who played football for the 49ers, played center on the only undefeated San Jose State football team, according to Titchenal. He was later the Spartans head football coach.

“Once you hit the first one, it takes the edge off a little bit and you’re more confident,” said Titchenal, whose career-high coming into the game was 9 points.

“I’ve been working hard in practice and coach decided to give me a shot. I was really excited to get out there and help my team. I got out there for my defense and luckily I was able to knock some shots down off some good passes from my teammates.”

While Titchenal was 6-7 from the floor, the rest of the Mustangs shot 26% (12 of 47) for the game.

“We weren’t pretty tonight offensively, but at least we made the game ugly defensively,” said Callero, whose Mustangs held Southern California to 36 points earlier in the season and held the Spartans to their lowest point total of the season Saturday.

Taylor paced Cal Poly with 10 rebounds and 8 points. Callero was impressed with his efficiency.

“To really appreciate Will, sometimes, you have to appreciate his stats based on his minutes. In a 20 minute time, he almost had a double-double,” said Callero.

Cal Poly had two opportunities to salt the game away during the final minute, but failed to convert on the front end of two 1-and-1 opportunities.

Guard Keith Shamburger led San Jose State with 19 points including 10-10 from the free throw line. At least two driving layup attempts rolled off the rim for Shamburger during the final three minutes. Both would have cut the Cal Poly lead to three points. Frustration boiled over for Shamburger as he and Amaurys Fermin received a double technical foul with less than one minute to play.

But the real story was Titchenal’s outburst.

“Titch goes off in practice, so we just wait for him [to do it] in the game,” said Taylor. “He went off tonight. Everyone knew he could do it just the same as Dylan… . Like I told him before the game, I said, we all have faith in you, just believe in yourself.”

With the win, Cal Poly’s record improves to 6-3 on the season, tying them with the 2001-02 team for the Mustangs’ best start at the Division I level.

Cal Poly next hosts Menlo College on Wednesday night before a two-game road trip to Fresno State and DePaul.

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Spartans coach George Nessman’s comments after the game: