Redlands
Mustangs Host Redlands Saturday Ahead of Big West Openers
11/26/2025 3:36:00 PM | Men's Basketball
SAN LUIS OBISPO – Following a six-game road trip and 24 days away from Mott Athletics Center, the Cal Poly men’s basketball program returns home to host Division III Redlands on Saturday, Nov. 29. Tip time is 4 p.m. for Cal Poly (3-5), which looks to snap a two-game slide after successive road setbacks at Northern Arizona and versus Southeast Missouri (Nov. 24-25). Cal Poly, which has sunk multiple three-pointers in a game five times this year and twice drained 14, enters Saturday’s game ranked sixth among 361 NCAA Division I programs with 83 total conversions. Redlands (5-0), defending SCIAC regular season co-champion, is facing its only Division I opponent of the season. The Bulldogs finished 25-5 last year and reached the NCAA Division III Tournament quarterfinals.
CAL POLY VERSUS REDLANDS AND NON-DIVISION I OPPONENTS: Facing Redlands for the first time since a 74-59 home victory on Nov. 25, 1978, Cal Poly leads the all-time series, 8-2. The two programs first met on Dec. 4, 1948. Since transitioning to the Division I level prior to the 1994-95 season, Cal Poly is 50-1 against non-Division I programs.
LONG-RANGE GAME: Cal Poly has once more emerged as one of the nation’s top three-point shooting sides with the Mustangs ranked sixth among 361 among NCAA Division I programs with 83 total three-pointers, 32nd with 30.3 attempts per game and 46th with 10.4 made per game. Individually, sophomore guard Hamad Mousa ranks second among Big West shooters with 43 three-pointers and seventh with a 44.2 percent mark.
MOUSA’S MOMENT: A double-digit scorer in all seven appearances, sophomore guard Hamad Mousa – who finished with 26 total points in 20 games at Dayton last season – leads the Big West at 18.3 points per game. Scoring a collegiate best 26 points at Utah (Nov. 20) after a 23-point performance versus Pacific Lutheran (Nov. 5), Mousa – one of just two players from Qatar in Division I this season – also ranks second in the lineup with 5.9 rebounds per game.
Following a career high 2?8? points at Utah last week and a Mustang victory!#RideHigh pic.twitter.com/Eaxq0GJ2mq
— Cal Poly Men’s Basketball (@calpolymbb) November 24, 2025
WARD’S SUPERIOR SOPHOMORE EFFORT: One of two Mustangs to start a team best seven games alongside fellow sophomore Peter Bandelj, guard Cayden Ward – behind six double-digit scoring efforts – enters Saturday’s matchup with Redlands second in the lineup and 11th among Big West scorers at 15.4 points per game. Ward, whose career high 28-point effort at Utah (Nov. 20) marked the highest scoring game by a Mustang this season and earned Big West Player of the Week praise, also leads Cal Poly with a 50.6 (43-for-85) percent field goal mark. Activated from a potential redshirt season last winter a month into the campaign, Ward – who averaged 7.4 points per game as a freshman – also scored 26 points against Pacific Lutheran (Nov. 5).
BANDELJ UPS THE SCORING PACE: Cal Poly’s leading returning scorer from last season, sophomore guard Peter Bandelj enters Saturday’s game with Redlands third in the lineup with 14.7 points per game following a season best 21-point effort at Montana (Nov. 14) and 20-point effort at Northern Arizona (Nov. 24). A double-digit scorer in all but one appearance, Bandelj also sits third in the lineup with a 42.5 (34-for-80) percent field goal mark. Through 42 collegiate appearances, Bandelj is averaging 11.1 points per game.
UNITED NATIONS: Cal Poly’s 2025-26 roster features players from nine different countries – a figure eclipsed by only UT Martin (13). Cal Poly, however, is the only Division I program this year with a roster that canvasses all six habitable continents/regions.
CLOSED PORTAL DOORS: Alongside Duke, Tennessee, American and Boston University, Cal Poly was just one of just five Division I programs not to lose a player to the transfer portal during the offseason.
Onto the next ??
— Cal Poly Men’s Basketball (@calpolymbb) November 24, 2025
Locked, loaded, and ready to run into this week!! #RideHigh pic.twitter.com/5BTQiyuj2J
MUSTANGS LOOK TO BUILD OFF OF HISTORIC 2024-25 SEASON: In addition to reaching the Big West Championship semifinals for the first time in 11 years last spring during head coach Mike DeGeorge’s first season, the 2024-25 Mustangs:
- Recorded the most overall wins (16) and Big West wins (eight) since the 2012-13 season;
- Finished third among 355 Division I programs in three-pointers made (11.5) and attempted (31.8) per game, 19th with 82.1 points per game and 30th in effective field goal percentage (55.4);
- Averaged 18.4 more points per game than the 2023-24 season – the most significant turnaround in the nation and;
- Enjoyed a 12-win improvement from previous season marking the fourth most dramatic reversal among Division I programs.
SANDERS DEBUT MAKES NBA MUSTANGS TWO: Cal Poly saw a second Mustang alum make his NBA debut on Oct. 22 when guard Kobe Sanders (2020-24) – drafted 50th overall by the New York Knicks in June before being traded to the Clippers – appeared for Los Angeles. Cal Poly’s first and only NBA Draft selection since 1978, Sanders joined guard David Nwaba (2013-16) – who appeared for the Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago, Cleveland, Brooklyn and Houston between 2017 and 2022 – as the only former Mustangs to play in the NBA.
ETC.: The Mustangs are in their 32nd Division I season and 82nd as a four-year program … Cal Poly’s Nov. 3 season opener at USC marked the earliest start date in program history … the Mustangs improved to 50-1 against non-Division I opposition with a 101-79 home victory against Division III Pacific Lutheran on Nov. 5 (Cal Poly transitioned to the Division I level prior to the 1994-95 season) … Cal Poly’s 92-85 victory at Utah (Nov. 20) marked the program’s first and only win against a current Big 12 program since defeating Arizona State on Dec. 2, 1949 … Cal Poly’s Nov. 25 matchup with Southeast Missouri marked the first all-time matchup between the two programs.
