Ryan ChartrandIf the Cal Poly women’s basketball team is to extend its historic winning streak to seven games, it will have to do so against first-place UC Riverside tonight.
The Mustangs (11-12, 6-4 Big West) have won six straight games for the first time since the 1981-82 season, their last 20-win campaign. They have a chance to move into a tie for second in the Big West standings if they win against the visiting Highlanders (17-9, 11-1) in a game that tips off at 7 tonight in Mott Gym.
Cal Poly has a decent shot at its first winning season since a 15-12 mark in 1991-92, when the program was still aligned in Division II with the California Collegiate Athletic Association.
The Mustangs, though, have been competitive in the Big West in recent years, going 7-7 in conference last season and 10-8 in 2003-04.
Could this be the season they finally get over the hump?
“I think that we do have the ability to compete for the (Big West) championship,” 10th-year Cal Poly head coach Faith Mimnaugh said Monday. “This is a fine team. It’s one of the finest teams we’ve had at Cal Poly.”
Indeed, the Mustangs have overcome their injury-riddled 5-12 start to win both close (twice by three points in the six-game winning streak) and by sizable margins (twice by double digits during the streak).
The most recent win, last Saturday, was a 71-68 victory at UC Santa Barbara in which Jessica Eggleston poured in 25 points to be named Big West Conference Player of the Week on Monday. The Mustangs used an 8-2 run in the final 45 seconds to steal the win, the second straight season they have won in the Thunderdome.
“Winning in the Thunderdome is a thrill for us,” Mimnaugh said. “To produce magic in back-to-back years in the Thunderdome is something that’s special to our players.”
Although UCSB (14-11, 7-3) is not the perennial power it once was when it went to the NCAA Tournament three straight seasons from 2002-03 to 2004-05, Cal Poly’s win in Santa Barbara served notice to the Big West that the Mustangs’ winning streak is not a fluke.
“We went into the game with great expectations and confidence that we could beat the Gauchos,” Mimnaugh said. “As the game progressed, we didn’t do as good a job on the glass as we could have.”
Cal Poly was outrebounded 55-33 by UCSB, but made up for it by shooting 44.4 percent from the field in the second half – exactly 10 percent higher than the Gauchos.
Rebounding is likely to come into play against UC Riverside, which has seven players 6-foot or taller. The defending Big West tourney champion Highlanders also boast a roster that has swatted 159 shots this season, compared to only 47 by their opponents.
“They’re huge,” Mimnaugh said of the Highlanders. “You’ve got 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 – that’s the frontcourt and the backcourt. They’re so big, they do a lot of things defensively. They like to switch screens, which has created some problems already. They’re huge, so defensively, we’re probably going to employ our zone. Davis beat (UC Riverside) earlier this year with their zone, so we’re hoping to have the same effect.”
The Mustangs will be trying to avenge a 75-65 loss at UC Riverside on Dec. 30 as part of a seven-game losing streak.
Only one game separated the Nos. 2 through 5 teams in the Big West standings through Wednesday. Finishing in the top four is crucial because those teams receive a first-round bye in the Big West tourney, which runs from March 7 to 10 in Anaheim. The top two teams are awarded an automatic trip to the semifinals of the conference tournament.
“I feel that there’s tremendous parity,” Mimnaugh said of the Big West. “Any team could win on any given night.”
And even though it took the Mustangs seven weeks after the season opener to get a healthy, balanced squad that could string together wins, Mimnaugh is glad it happened before postseason play begins.
“It’s way better to win games at the end of the season than in the middle,” she said. “You’re learning things as you really go along. I don’t know that I would have scripted it this way, but I’ll take it. We’re peaking at the right time.”