McMahon Matches Career-High 26 Points as Bobcats Hold Off Mustangs, 83-80

Tuesday, December 16

San Luis Obispo, Calif.

8 p.m.

Montana State University

5-7,0-0Big Sky

Cal Poly

5-7,1-1Big West

Montana St.

Cal Poly

Photo by: Boise State Athletics

McMahon Matches Career-High 26 Points as Bobcats Hold Off Mustangs, 83-80

12/16/2025 11:29:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Bobcats earn victory in final road contest of nonconference slate

By: Pershelle Rohrer

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Patrick McMahon (26 points) and Christian King (16) both tallied career highs in scoring at the Mott Athletics Center on Tuesday night, combining for 42 points to help the Bobcats earn an 83-80 road victory over Cal Poly.

The Bobcats came out on top following a contest that featured multiple momentum shifts in the second half. Montana State held off a late Cal Poly comeback thanks to a pair of McMahon dunks to improve to 5-7 on the season ahead of its final nonconference game. Four Cats scored in double figures while the defense held the Mustangs to just 28.6% shooting from three-point range.

"Our guys have done everything about the process the way you want them to," head coach Matt Logie said. "We haven't got all the breaks that we've wanted sometimes, and we just needed one thing to go right in those last three or four minutes and finally got them to miss. We played really good basketball today. Our defensive discipline – [Cal Poly] is a really good offensive basketball team, and to hold them under 40% from the field and only eight three-pointers for the game is just tremendous work. You build a lead and you have a little bit of a buffer there at the end, and you can learn a lot through winning too. That's what we finally got a chance to experience tonight, and I'm really happy for the guys. They deserve it."

Cal Poly opened the contest on a 9-2 run before Montana State countered with five-straight points to trail, 9-7, at the first media timeout. The Bobcats extended their run to 10-1, knocking down four-straight buckets to take their first lead of the game, 12-10, at the 15:15 mark. Montana State worked up to a four-point lead, 21-17, at the 9:06 mark and again, 25-21, with 6:09 left as the two teams battled close in the first half. Cal Poly tied the contest at 27 apiece with 4:28 remaining before Patrick McMahon and Christian King knocked down back-to-back threes to give the Bobcats their largest lead of the half, 33-27, at the 3:16 mark. Montana State did not trail for the rest of the half until Cal Poly's Austin Goode sunk a last-second free throw to give the Mustangs a 41-40 lead at the half. McMahon secured his ninth double-digit scoring performance of the season just over 16 minutes into the game, shooting 4-of-6 from the field to tally 10 first-half points. Seth Amunrud matched McMahon's 10 as the two guards combined for 50% of the Bobcats' scoring in the opening 20 minutes.

The Bobcats started off strong in the second half, turning an early three-point deficit into a five-point lead thanks to an 8-0 run, capped off by a McMahon layup at the 16:33 mark. Montana State extended that lead to nine points, 61-52, on a three-pointer by King at the 13:06 mark before Cal Poly trimmed the Cats' lead back to two points, 61-59, following a 7-0 run over the next two and a half minutes. The momentum then swung back Montana State's way as the Cats used a 12-0 run to increase their lead to 14 points, their largest of the night, as Montana State led, 73-59, with 7:29 remaining in regulation. The Bobcats maintained that lead until the Mustangs mounted a furious comeback in the final 4:30 to come within one point of Montana State, 79-78, with 35 seconds to go. McMahon played hero late, recording dunks on back-to-back plays in the closing seconds to help the Bobcats secure the 83-80 victory in their final road contest of nonconference play.

Montana State limited a sharp-shooting Cal Poly team to 39.7% from the field and just 28.6% from three in Tuesday night's contest. The Bobcats played unselfish basketball, dishing 16 assists to Cal Poly's eight, while Montana State tallied 34 bench points to Cal Poly's 14.

McMahon matched his career-high 26 points with an 11-of-14 shooting performance, also tallying four rebounds, a team-high five assists, and one steal. King posted a career-high 16 points and eight boards off the bench in his return from injury, adding two assists and one steal. Amunrud tallied 14 points and five rebounds, and Jeremiah Davis chipped in 11 points to round out the Bobcats' double-digit scorers against the Mustangs.

The Bobcats will play their final nonconference game of the season against Northwest on Monday, Dec. 22, at 1 p.m. in Worthington Arena. The game, which marks the last of the 2025 calendar year, will be broadcast live on ESPN+.

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