15-13, 10-6BWC
UC Santa Barbara
2-27, 2-14BWC
Ale, Elegado, Garza Lead Cal Poly to 84-63 Senior Day Win Over UCSB
3/7/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Mustangs to Open Big West Conference Tournament as No. 3 Seed at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Titan Gym in Fullerton on ESPN3
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Playing on Senior Day, Cal Poly's trio of Kristen Ale, Ariana Elegado and Taryn Garza combined for 41 points, 16 rebounds, 10 assists and five steals on Saturday afternoon to lead the Mustangs to an 84-63 win over the UC Santa Barbara women's basketball team in front of a crowd of 1,166 at Mott Athletics Center.
A season-most 12 different players scored for the Mustangs, who finished the regular season 10-6 in Big West play (15-13 overall), and will be the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament.
As such, they'll open in the quarterfinals at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Titan Gym in Fullerton, against an opponent to be determined (the lowest-remaining seed of 5 through 8) on ESPN3. For the full bracket, click HERE.
The winner of that game will head to the Honda Center in Anaheim for the semifinals, where the top two seeds — Hawai'i and CSUN — await a Friday start after earning byes.
The Gauchos scored the game's first five points within the initial minute Saturday, before Cal Poly went on a 20-0 run over the next 5:53 — the team's longest unanswered run of the entire season.
UCSB didn't go away, though, getting within 24-18 with 8:37 to go until halftime, eventually cutting the deficit to 42-39 before going to the break down 48-41.
Cal Poly steadily pulled away to start the second half, taking a 55-43 advantage with 15:20 left, then going up 72-52 at the 8:58 mark, and ultimately taking its largest lead (24) at 84-60 with 2:45 to play, on the way to a ninth consecutive win in the Blue-Green Rivalry series.
Elegado finished with 24 points (a season high for the third time) and eight assists.
Now with 463 career assists, Elegado is just four back of equaling the school record (which was placed at 467 a year ago by then-teammate Jonae Ervin). Elegado was also 6 of 9 from 3-point range, as the Mustangs went 11 of 22 from deep altogether.
Garza had 11 points and 12 rebounds. In helping the squad dominate the battle on the boards 47-22, she posted her eighth game reaching double figures while upping her career total to 534 rebounds.
Ale added six points, with a perfect (3 for 3) game from the free-throw line, and closed the regular season having hit a 3-pointer in 21 games.
Sophomore center Hannah Gilbert added 10 points, while freshman wing Dynn Leaupepe also had seven points and 10 rebounds. It was the 13th time this year that at least nine Mustangs have made it into the scoring column.
Photos © 2015 David E. Holmes
