Mustang Daily Staff Report
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Call it a four-peat.
For the fourth consecutive year, a Cal Poly women’s basketball player has won the Big West Player of the Year award. This time around, junior center Molly Schlemer won the conference’s top honor after leading the Mustangs to a 13-5 record in conference play, 19-10 overall, and a No. 2 seed in the Big West tournament that begins later this week.
Former Mustangs’ forward Kristina Santiago won the award during the 2009-10 and 2011-12 seasons and guard Rachel Clancy took the honor in 2010-11 while Santiago recovered from a knee injury.
Schlemer led the Mustangs in scoring, averaging 12.7 points per game, while racking up 20 blocks and pulling down 6.8 rebounds per game. She shot 55.6 percent from the floor while establishing a dominant presence as the tallest player in the league.
“I was really excited for Molly, but also for the team because, in my experience with coaching, it’s the team that wins the award,” head coach Faith Mimnaugh said.
Schlemer’s breakout junior season followed two years in which she averaged fewer than four points per game while Santiago and Clancy took the bulk of the Mustangs’ scoring attack.
“We saw the spot open for somebody to take over, and me and (redshirt sophomore guard) Ariana (Elegado) came in as freshmen together and we always talked about how we would be very successful by our junior year,” Schlemer said. “We took that and ran with it.”
This season, she put up 10 points or more in 20 of the Mustangs’ 29 games, including a 28-point performance against Big West regular season champion Pacific in a triple-overtime victory.
Schlemer credited her performance this season to solid play from guards Jonae Ervin and Elegado.
“This year has been great because of the way our team plays together,” Schlemer said. “The way the guards get me the ball, the way people are shooting outside to get me open has been really nice.”
Ervin finished the regular season leading the NCAA in assist-to-turnover ratio with 2.97 assists for every turnover. Elegado was the team’s second-leading scorer, averaging 12.1 points per game and connecting on 67 of her 173 3-point attempts (37.8 percent).
Senior guard Kayla Griffin, along with Ervin and Elegado, earned Big West honorable mentions.
The Mustangs will face the lowest remaining seed in the Big West tournament semifinals on Friday at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. Schlemer said after being held to four points against Long Beach State this past Saturday, she won't let teams take her out of the game during the Mustangs' push for a program-first NCAA tournament bid.
"I need to stay focused and stay confident and just finish all the shots that I get open," she said.
Jefferson P. Nolan contributed to this report.