It didn’t take Denver coach Joe Scott long to diagnose how Cal Irvine came into Magness Arena and Saturday demolished the Pioneers.
With the imposing Mamadou Ndiaye’s 7-foot-6 length a force, the Anteaters led almost throughout on the way to a 63-50 victory that ended Denver’s three-game winning streak.
The Pioneers shot a miserable 34 percent from the floor. At the other end, Cal Irvine shot 61.5 percent, including 6-of-12 from 3-point range, and the Anteaters (7-6) had double-figure leads down the stretch.
The Pioneers (5-6) had 10 offensive rebounds and scored eight second-chance points, but that was about the only bright spot.
“They just outplayed us for whatever the reason,” Scott said. “They had a game plan and it worked. They took us out of our energy. We weren’t crisp today.”
Ndiaye played only 25 minutes, but that was enough for him to score 11 points on 5-for-5 shooting from the floor, all from around the basket. At the other end, he had five blocked shots. Guards Chris McNealy and Luke Nelson each scored 14 points to lead Cal Irvine.
“They had our number today,” Pioneer guard Jalen Love said. “We couldn’t penetrate and do the things we normally do. We should have made some adjustments on the fly, but we didn’t.”
Cal Irvine coach Russell Turner acknowledged that Ndiaye, a freshman, can be a demoralizing presence to the opponent when he’s playing as he did against the Pioneers.
“I think our ability to take care of the ball at critical times and spread the points around was more important to our winning than the 3-point shooting,” Turner said.
But Denver, usually a good 3-point shooting team, managed to make just 7-of-25 shots from outside of the arch.
After early sparring, the Pioneers held the lead only three times in the game.
Brett Olson led DU with 14 points.
Chris Udofia struggled through his worst game of the season, scoring seven points on 2-for-12 shooting.
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296, imoss@denverpost.com or
