After suffering several losing streaks early in the season, the Cal Poly women’s basketball team (11-12, 7-3) caught fire, winning five straight games including their most recent 66-48 triumph over Cal State Fullerton inside Mott Gym on Saturday afternoon.
Defense has been key for the team’s success — the Mustangs haven’t lost since implementing a stingier man-to-man matchup on opposing teams, according to 15th-year head coach Faith Mimnaugh.
“It’s made a difference in that we’ve been able to turn up the heat a little bit more and play more aggressively,” she said. “That’s made all the difference for us in getting stops, getting rebounds and getting great opportunities to score.”
Cal Poly’s defense shone once again on Saturday holding last place Cal State Fullerton (9-15, 2-10) to under 50 points including a 10 percent shooting percentage from 3-point range. Cal Poly senior guard Ashlee Burns opened the scoring with a layup less than a minute into the contest, but the Mustangs would trail the Titans until the 10-minute mark of the first half when sophomore guard Jonae Ervin converted a layup to knot the score at 11.
A steal by 2009-10 Big West Conference player of the year Kristina Santiago would give junior guard Caroline Reeves an opportunity to convert a layup at the other end of the floor to give the Mustangs the lead for good. The team would eventually go an 11-0 run to lead 17-11 with 7:19 to go in the first after two made free throws by senior guard Christine Martin.
For Santiago, the performance wasn’t flawless, but she admits she’s pleased with the team’s second place standing in the Big West.
“We were a little bit up and down today,” Santiago said. “We had spurts where we did really good, and then, we had spurts where we had (a lot) of turnovers. Overall, we played good team ball, but I think we could be more consistent.”
Santiago started the game slowly, scoring just six points and grabbing four rebounds in the first half. She was taken out of the game early in the second half due to a bloody nose, but as soon as she stopped the bleeding, she re-entered and let the Titans feel some of her pain.
The senior scored 11 second half points to go along with 10 total rebounds, earning her 12th double-double of the season. Although she was well off her average of 23 points per game, Santiago is on pace to become the leading scorer in Cal Poly women’s basketball history. She needs 89 more points in six remaining regular season contests to catch all-time leader Laura Buehning.
After shooting 33 percent from the floor in the first half, the Mustangs got hot in the second and hit 14 of 22 from the field. Nursing a nine-point lead at halftime, Cal Poly surged in the second frame after a Santiago three-point play and a layup by junior guard Kayla Griffin to give the Mustangs their largest lead (22) of the afternoon with 10:38 to play.
Along with Santiago, Ervin notched a 10 point, eight assist performance. The Brea, Calif.-native entered Saturday’s game leading the nation with a 3.32 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Because redshirt freshman guard Ariana Elegado has seen limited minutes in recent games due to an injury, Ervin has been forced to take the leading point guard role, according to Mimnaugh.
“Jonae has had to largely carry the burden of handling the play calling and she’s done a real nice job to be able to log that many minutes,” Mimnaugh said. “It was a strong performance from her today.”
The Mustangs showed their characteristic depth on offense as nine of 12 players registered at least a bucket. Griffin, who earned praise from Mimnaugh for her mid-range shooting in the second half, posted nine points and six rebounds in the win.
“Everyone on this team has the ability to score,” Griffin said. “If (the opposing team) cuts off one thing, we have someone else that can step up and score. It’s really like we have five different elements to our game that can step up at any time.”
The Mustangs look to extend the win streak to six games as they travel to take on UC Irvine
Thursday, and return home to Mott Gym for a 7 p.m. game against Long Beach State on Feb. 23.