The Cal Poly women’s basketball team already knows where it will stand when the Big West tournament begins next week.
The Mustangs (18-9, 10-4) will be the third seed regardless of how they play this week. But with last Saturday’s humbling 76-66 loss on senior night to Cal State Bakersfield fresh in their minds, head coach Faith Mimnaugh wants to make sure the team closes the regular season on a more positive note.
“They want to win both games,” Mimnaugh said. “Not just to get the wins but to create some momentum going into the tournament.”
The Mustangs can begin to create that momentum at 7 tonight when they visit Long Beach State (8-19, 4-10) at the Walter Pyramid.
Cal Poly sophomore forward Kristina Santiago had one of her best games of the season in the Mustangs’ 74-66 win over the 49ers in January. Santiago and senior forward Megan Harrison combined to score more than half of Cal Poly’s points in the contest.
In the loss to Bakersfield the two were held to just 34.9 percent on their field goal attempts. Aside from senior guard Lisa McBride, the rest of the team shot just 12 percent.
“It’s just one of those games you hope you don’t see that kind of poor shooting,” Mimnaugh said. “We couldn’t all possibly have another shooting percentage that was poor in the same day. It can’t happen.”
Regardless of what happens against the 49ers, or when the Mustangs play at Big West co-leader UC Riverside, Cal Poly will begin the Big West Tournament on March 12 when they play the lowest seed remaining from the first round games.