Central Coast rivals clash again

The Cal Poly women’s basketball team and UC Santa Barbara have been in a number of wars over the last few years.

The Mustangs (9-6, 2-2 Big West Conference) and Gauchos (9-6, 4-0) will get reacquainted on Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Thunderdome.

Let the battle recommence.

“Any Cal Poly student that has any inkling about what this rivalry is about gets pretty motivated,” Mustangs head coach Faith Mimnaugh said. “We bleed green and hopefully you’ll see a lot of green blood.”

The teams met three times last season including in the Big West Tournament Semifinal, in which UC Santa Barbara ended the Mustangs season, handing them a 77-57 defeat.

The Gauchos won all three meetings last year.

“We have nothing to lose,” said senior guard Lisa McBride. “No one ever expects us to win that game and we always know that we can do it. We go in and give everything we have.”

That mentality is a key to Cal Poly’s reversal of fortune at the Thunderdome. The Mustangs went 23 years without a win in Santa Barbara, a streak that was ended in 2006.

Cal Poly has since won two of the last three meetings at the Thunderdome, their lone defeat coming in overtime last year.

Still, Mimnaugh said that the team is more focused on the overall outcome of the conference as opposed to the outcome of this game.

“Certainly for us it’s a lot less about a statement and more about getting back into the (conference) race,” Mimnaugh explained. “We’re right in the middle of the pack and we want to be at the top and get some byes in the tournament.”

The Mustangs have a long week to prepare for UC Santa Barbara, playing only one game this week, a fact that Mimnaugh said can be a positive or a negative.

“The players might tell you it’s a bad thing, Mimnaugh said. “But we’ll have more opportunities to work through their personnel. We’ll be practicing very hard this week in preparation for the top team in the conference.”

McBride sees some similarities between the two teams, which could contribute to the close games between them.

“We both are very aggressive teams,” McBride said. “We battle to the end, it’s never over when we play each other. No matter who’s up or who’s down, we can be down by 10 but we’re still going to work our butts off to beat them.”

Mimnaugh said that rebounding would be the key element to another Cal Poly upset bid.

“When we’ve had success there in the past, it’s been because of our offensive production on the glass and so that’s an area of emphasis as we’re preparing this week,” Mimnaugh said.

The Mustangs may be aided on glass by the absence of two of UC Santa Barbara’s most valuable post players in senior centers Jenna Green and Kat Suderman.

Suderman, a San Luis Obispo native who played her high school basketball at Mission Prep, has been hampered by injuries this year, starting in just four games for the Gauchos.

The Mustangs’ main benefactor of their absence may be sophomore forward Kristina Santiago, whose shooting percentage (.556) ranks first in the conference and 23rd in the nation.

Santiago is one of the six Mustangs averaging over 1.8 assists per game. Cal Poly ranks 11th in the nation in assists.

McBride said the team chemistry is part of why the team’s passing has come together so well.

“We do get along well,” McBride said. “A lot of it is just us playing together because it’s been carried on from last year.”

Although the Mustangs 9-6 start marks the third-best start in school history, McBride still sees the team as underachieving.

“We haven’t been playing to our best lately and everyone is ready to prove people wrong,” she said. “I think this weekend is our chance to do that.”