The Cal Poly women’s basketball team is in the middle of a nine-day break in between games and a 14-day gap in between Big West Conference contests.
It couldn’t come at a better time.
Injuries keep mounting for the Mustangs (5-11, 1-3 Big West), who have lost eight of nine following a 4-3 start that included wins over Oregon State and two West Coast Conference teams.
Already without its starting backcourt because of respective injuries, Cal Poly could now be playing for an extended period of time without one of its most versatile players – sophomore forward Megan Harrison. She averaged 8.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.1 steals per outing in the 15 games she played so far this season.
“Megan Harrison got injured in practice, we need to see if she’s done for the season as well,” Cal Poly head coach Faith Mimnaugh said Monday at a weekly press conference. “We’ve taken a pretty big beating as far as (injuries). My spirits are in a place where we’re going to try to take the physical losses we’ve had and turn them into positives.”
Already out for the season are four-year starting point guard Sparkle Anderson (ACL) and starting junior shooting guard Toni Newman (leg stress fracture). The two combined for 16.6 points, 8.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 2.7 steals per game before their seasons ended prematurely.
“It’s been a constantly evolving team,” Mimnaugh said. “Different aspects have been altered because of our changing personnel, which seems to be constant. When we have to convert two guards into point guards, then we’ve got people that are standing around waiting for the outlet when they should be running. Having Sparkle out of the lineup has been a big blow.”
A promising crop of six freshmen – sometimes five on the floor at a time – have helped keep the Mustangs afloat for the time being. Among the freshmen seeing an increase in minutes are power forward Bria Fields (9.5 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 1.1 blocks per game) and shooting guard Tamara Wells (3.1 ppg).
“They’re doing an incredible job,” Mimnaugh said of her freshmen. “We had a game where we’re high in turnovers and it was our freshmen who had the least number of turnovers. I’m really excited about their development. They’re not afraid to have the ball stolen from them, which is a big change from where they were two months ago, when they were a little tentative.”
There is nothing tentative about the way senior forward Jessica Eggleston – a preseason all-conference pick – has been playing. Eggleston, whom Mimnaugh tabbed as a WNBA prospect before the season, is putting up team highs of 13.1 points and 7.8 rebounds along with 2.6 assists and 2.0 steals per game.
Eggleston said that the team playing its next four games at home – three of which in conference – could be a boost. Cal Poly is 1-7 on the road this season.
“We had a monkey on our back being on the road,” Eggleston said. “At home we always play a little better, so I’m definitely looking forward to it.”
Eggleston called the rash of injuries the Mustangs are experiencing “pretty tough.”
“We’re getting pretty thin at point guard,” she said. “It’s a team effort. We’ve all had to pitch in and help out.”
One of the players helping out is Eggleston, who had a team-high four assists in a 78-64 loss at UC Davis on Jan. 11 and dropped a team-leading six dimes in a 64-49 loss at Cal State Fullerton on Dec. 28.
“Jessica Eggleston is a great player,” Mimnaugh said. “She’s had to do a lot more distributing, which isn’t necessarily her strength. She’s still one of our top assist people on the team, but at the same time, I’d love to see her on the receiving end of a lot of those passes. If she were in that position, then you’d see somebody who’s averaging 20 points a game instead of 13 points a game. She’s just having to do so much for us right now.”
Eggleston, who averages 32.4 minutes per game, said the area Cal Poly is most trying to shore up is its zone defense.
“Since we lost a lot of quickness,” she said of the injuries, “we can’t really play our full-court press the whole game. Tidying up our half-court defense, our zone defense, decreasing turnovers. Just being more careful with the ball.”
Cal Poly will have a chance to show improvement in those areas when it hosts rival UC Santa Barbara (9-8, 3-1 Big West) at 4 p.m. Saturday.
“Watching film, the little bit that we have, they’re pretty good,” Eggleston said of the Gauchos. “They’re intense on defense and they’re very physical. They’re second in conference right now, so they’re obviously doing something well.”
Mimnaugh added: “We have to do an awesome job rebounding the basketball. We’ll try to mix things up between our man and our zone.”