Stephan Teodosescu
steodosescu@mustangdaily.net
The Cal Poly women’s basketball team made good on the old basketball adage that says the sport is a game of runs.
Leading by just five points after the first half against UC Irvine on Thursday, the Mustangs used a 49-point second period, including a 35-6 run in the game’s final 14 minutes, to position themselves for their third-consecutive Big West Conference regular season championship in as many years by winning 76-36 over the Anteaters inside the Mott Athletics Center. All the team needs is a win on Saturday against Long Beach State.
With the victory, Cal Poly (19-9, 13-4 Big West) can clinch the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament starting next week and at least a share of the title with Pacific.
“Now that we think about it, we’re down to one more home game,” sophomore guard Ariana Elegado said. “We’re feeling good about it, we’re feeling good about our team like we’re all on the same page. We just can’t wait to get to the tournament.”
The win over the Anteaters (9-20, 5-12) guaranteed the Mustangs at least the No. 2 seed in the tournament, meaning they will have a first- and second-round bye when they head to Anaheim next weekend. Two wins there and they’ll be headed to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history.
“It was an incentive for us to make sure we got a high seed,” junior center Molly Schlemer said. “The more games you play in a row like (in the conference tournament) it’s a really big toll on your body, especially now when a lot of us are feeling the burn from the whole season. We wanted to get that high seed so we could play the least amount of games to get to where we want to be.”
But Schlemer didn’t need any extra incentive Thursday.
A potential Big West Player of the Year candidate, she scored 18 points and added nine boards against the Anteaters, her 17th double-figure performance in the Mustangs’ past 19 games.
With just seven points in the game’s opening 20 minutes, teammates made sure to find her on the low post to open up the second half as she came alive to spark Cal Poly’s blowout victory.
“You can see what kind of production she’s got on the court for us and that’s in somewhat limited minutes the last couple of games when we’ve created some leads. She’s been sitting on the bench while some people have been getting some experience on the court,” head coach Faith Mimnaugh said. “If she was on the court for 40 minutes she might be (averaging) in the 20- to 25-point range like Kristina Santiago last year.”
With the help of three straight 3-pointers in the game’s opening 1:33, Cal Poly opened on an 11-0 run and eventually led 19-3 early in the first.
But the Anteaters clawed their way back late in the half using a 17-7 run before the break to cut the Mustangs’ lead to 27-22.
“The first half we were just too sloppy with the ball,” Mimnaugh said. We started out with an early lead and I just felt like we were just trying to put on a show instead of playing good basketball. Once we got that corrected, we were good to go.”
Schlemer and Elegado took over from there as Elegado hit a long-range 3-pointer with 15:43 remaining to extend Cal Poly’s lead to double-digits and hit another bomb with 11:45 to go in the game. After getting intentionally fouled on four straight possessions down the stretch by UC Irvine’s Raelyn Cheung-Sutton, Elegado hit eight straight free throws to ice the game.
The Mustangs have now won six straight overall and nine in a row on their home floor.
Elegado finished as the team’s leading scorer with 20 points, 12 of which came from downtown. Cal Poly shot 48.3 percent from the field as a team and, despite turning the ball over 17 times, earned its largest margin of victory of the season.
The Mustangs look to avenge a 10-point loss to Long Beach State in January when the 49ers come to Mott on Saturday. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m.