A mid-season conference victory against UC Davis might not be sweet revenge, but for the Cal Poly women’s basketball team, it was sweet enough.
The Mustangs downed the Aggies 87-65 in Mott Gym on Saturday afternoon to improve to 5-3 in Big West Conference play and 8-12 overall.
UC Davis (13-7, 5-3 Big West) defeated the Mustangs in the Big West Conference Championship game a year ago 66-49, robbing Cal Poly of its first ever outright conference title and a bid in the NCAA Tournament. That year, the Mustangs settled for a 12-4 conference record to win the Big West in regular-season play.
“We thought about last year a little bit, I mean it’s always a sour feeling finishing the year to that team,” senior guard Ashlee Burns said. “But we go into every game wanting to win. We’re not trying to compete for anything in the standings right now. (Losing to UC Davis last year) doesn’t matter. We’re just trying to get wins.”
Saturday’s showdown didn’t have a conference title on the line, but the Mustangs took full advantage by suffocating the Aggies offense while posting their second highest point total since losing to Oregon 102-93 early in the season.
Burns led the Mustangs with six 3-pointers and notched a game-high 20 points including two from beyond the arc to open the game. Burns’ opening 3-pointers gave the Mustangs the energy boost needed to sustain a balanced attack over their co-conference champions from last season, according to senior forward Kristina Santiago.
“It’s huge especially because we’ve been seeing so many double and triple teams down low,” Santiago said. “(Burns) being able to knock those down frees us up and makes them have to play everybody the same. I mean that’s huge for her to knock those down in the beginning.”
The Mustangs jumped out to a quick 6-0 advantage off of Burns’ hot shooting and would hold the points’ edge the rest of the game. Cal Poly saw its biggest lead of the half at 52-25 with 24 seconds remaining in the period following a layup by freshman guard Jasmine Harris.
The Mustangs rode a 58 percent shooting figure in the first half going 19-for-33 from the floor and hitting 5 of 12 shots from beyond the 3-point line to pull away from the Aggies 52-25 at the break.
Cal Poly cruised in the second half as 11 of the Mustang’s 13 players scored on the afternoon, showing depth that the injury-depleted squad hadn’t seen earlier this season. Head coach Faith Mimnaugh said it’s a testament to the team’s maturation over the course of the year.
“We’re evolving as a team,” she said. “I like where we’re at, and I think we’re starting to swing the right way; and we had a ton of different contributions today from a number of different players.”
The Mustangs extended their lead following a Burns 3-pointer which put Cal Poly up 69-34 with 13:03 left in the contest.
Nevada transfer and junior forward Brittany Woodard’s fast-break layup with 8:19 left gave Cal Poly its largest lead of the afternoon, 79-43. The Aggies would get no closer than 22 points the rest of the way as the Mustangs would coast to their second consecutive Big West victory.
Junior guard Kayla Griffin was the third Mustang in double figures with 16 points and nine rebounds on the day as Burns, Santiago and Griffin combined for 53 points.
Sophomore guard Jonae Ervin dished out a career-high 10 assists and only gave the ball away two times increasing her assist to turnover ratio — she entered Saturday’s game ranked third in the country in that category with a 2.85 ratio.
Santiago, the Big West Conference player of the year in 2009-10, entered Saturday’s game third in the nation averaging 23.7 points per game. Despite being held to 17 points on the afternoon, the senior is on pace to eclipse the Cal Poly women’s basketball record for career points scored held by Laura Buehning (1,843) set from 1979 to 1981. Santiago needs only 150 points — an average of about 16.5 points per game in the Mustangs’ remaining nine regular season contests — to become Cal Poly’s all-time leading scorer.
“It’s a pretty cool thing to know, especially after working so hard and being injured,” Santiago said. “It’s something to work for too. It kind of motivates and pushes me out there.”
Santiago also helped the Mustangs edge Pacific on Thursday night 74-64 registering her 10th double-double of the 2010-12 campaign in Mott Gym.
Santiago had a game-high 25 points, 19 of which came in the second half. The senior also dominated the visiting Tigers on the glass pulling down 14 rebounds on the night. The win snapped a three-game losing streak in conference play for the Mustangs.
Senior guard Christine Martin also played a large role in the win as she knocked down 14 points off the bench.
The Mustangs opened a 16-0 lead with 14:46 remaining in the first half of that game following Santiago’s three fast-break layups late in the period and never looked back as they eventually would settle for the 10 point margin of victory.
Despite Cal Poly’s impressive offensive statistics in the two most recent games, Mimnaugh attributes the string of wins to the team’s deviation from a typical zone matchup on the defensive side of the ball.
“I think our man-to-man defense has really been the key,” Mimnaugh said. “We’ve been able to get some good isolations with strong post play from Santiago, Griffin and some from Caroline Reeves … I felt like we had some great penetration which has put us in an attack-minded mode.”
The Mustangs travel south next Saturday looking to avenge a three-point home loss earlier this season to rival UC Santa Barbara. ESPN3will stream the game live starting at 2 p.m.