Cal Poly keeps it close in first half, then Cal pulls away

Jovan Blacksher Jr. had a team-high 18 points, Andrej Stojakovic added 15 and California ran off from visiting Cal Poly 91-73 on Thursday night for a nonconference win that gave the Golden Bears their first 2-0 start in five years.Rytis Petraitis chipped in with 13 points off the bench and BJ Omot had 10, as Cal (2-0), featuring 10 transfers, used a balance attack to more than offset a career-high 20-point performance by Cal Poly’s Isaac Jessup.Coming off a season-opening loss at San Francisco on Tuesday, the Mustangs (0-2) scored the game’s first five points and 11 of the first 13. Jessup had a pair of 3-pointers and Ethan Menzies a third in the run.Cal missed six of its first seven shots before Omot converted a Mady Sissoko offensive rebound into a three-point play, beginning an uphill climb that eventually saw the Golden Bears take their first lead at 25-24 with 5:38 left in the half.Cal, which opened with a one-sided home win over Cal State Bakersfield on Monday, gradually pulled away, taking a 39-35 halftime advantage before leading by as many as 25 in the second half.Blacksher, an Oakland native who transferred to Cal this offseason from Grand Canyon, hit six of his 13 shots from the floor, including four of his seven 3-point attempts. The Golden Bears outshot the Mustangs 46.2 percent to 37.9 percent from the floor and 42.3 percent to 38.5 percent on 3-pointers.

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