Mustangs Begin 5-Game Homestand Tuesday Against #10 Louisville

Tuesday, November 23

San Luis Obispo, Calif.

5 P.M.

Louisville

Tickets

Photo by: Photo By: Photography805/ Nathan

Mustangs Begin 5-Game Homestand Tuesday Against #10 Louisville

11/22/2021 12:40:00 PM | Women's Basketball

WEEKLY GAME NOTES (PDF)

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — After 13 days off following its season-opener against Santa Clara, the Cal Poly women's basketball team will begin a stretch of five consecutive home games starting Tuesday against No. 10 Louisville followed by St. Thomas on Thursday and Montana State on Friday as part of its annual Holiday Beach Classic. The Mustangs (0-1) will host the No. 10 Cardinals (3-1) at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Mott. They will then face St. Thomas Friday at 12 p.m. and Montana State Saturday at 2:30 p.m. All three games will be streamed live on ESPN+ with Cal Poly's Daniel Gillman and Zachary Anderson-Yoxsimer on the call. Links for that as well as audio and live stat links can be found on the schedule page. In addition to Cal Poly's games, there will be another game each day Friday and Saturday as part of the Holiday Beach Classic. Montana State will play North Texas at 2:30 p.m. Friday and North Texas will face St. Thomas at 12 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free to all fans for all four of the Holiday Beach Classic games. In its lone game of the season so far on Nov. 10, Cal Poly fell on the road at Santa Clara, 77-91. Three Mustangs scored in double figures, led by junior guard Maddie Willett's 18 points. Cal Poly's other double-digit efforts came from a pair of freshmen guards. Sydney Bourland finished with 13 points and four steals while Annika Shah added 10 points. Cal Poly shot the ball well, shooting nearly 53-percent from the floor and 43-percent from three. However, the Mustangs committed 20 turnovers including 19 in the first three quarters which Santa Clara turned into 17 points. Willett is Cal Poly's leading returning scorer from last season after she finished third on the team in scoring at 7.8 points per game. The Mustangs lost their top two leading scorers from the last two seasons in Sierra Campisano and Abbey Ellis. Willett started 23 of the 24 games last year and made the second most threes on the team with 25. This year's Mustang team welcomes eight newcomers, including six freshmen and two Division I transfers. Last season, Cal Poly finished 13-11 overall and 8-8 in Big West play for a sixth-place finish in the Big West. In the Big West Conference Tournament, the Mustangs beat Long Beach State 61-60 in the quarterfinals before falling to UC Irvine in the semifinals. Louisville comes into Tuesday's game having won three in a row after losing their opening game of the season to No. 22 Arizona. On Saturday, the Cardinals picked up a 61-53 win over Washington in Seattle. Louisville has been led so far this season by guard Hailey Van Lith's 10.8 points per game and forward Emily Engstler's 10.5 points per game. Louisville's third-leading scorer at 9.8 points per game is guard Kianna Smith. She is the daughter of Cal Poly men's basketball head coach John Smith. This will be the first meeting in women's basketball between the two schools. This will be the first time a nationally-ranked opponent has come to Mott Athletics Center since the women's volleyball team hosted No. 9 UCLA in 2018. St. Thomas comes into the week 1-3 and split of a pair of games last week. They beat South Carolina State 65-50 before falling to Presbyterian College 82-62. St. Thomas is in its first year as a Division I school after making the rare jump from Division III. They have been led in scoring this year by a pair of guards averaging 11.7 points per game in Jade Hill and Erin Norling. This will be the first all-time meeting between the schools. Montana State heads into the week 1-4 on the season and have lost their last four games. Last week, they fell to South Dakota State 78-49 and North Dakota 89-85. The Bobcats have been led in scoring this season by guard Darian White's 12.8 points per game. This will be the third all-time meeting with Montana State. The series is tied 1-1 with the Bobcats winning the last matchup on Dec. 20, 2016 71-52 in Bozeman. Brown Nearing Program Record: Kirsty Brown, a fifth-year player, needs to play in just 22 more games to become the Mustangs' program leader in career games played. The record is 124 and she currently sits at 103. Returning Mustangs: The Mustangs return a total of eight players from last season. Those include junior guard Maddie Willett who started 23 of 24 games last year and was third on the team in scoring at 7.8 points per game and had seven games in which she scored double figures. Senior forward Kirsty Brown returns for her fifth season. Last year, she was fourth on the team in scoring 6.4 points per game, second in rebounding at 5.6 per game, and had three double-doubles. Junior guard Maddie Vick played in all 24 games last season and came off the bench to lead the team in assists per game at 2.8. She also ranked third in the Big West in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.6. New Stangs: Cal Poly will have plenty of youth on this year's team as they welcome six freshmen. The Mustangs also added two Division I transfers in redshirt freshman guard Sarah Dumitrescu from Ole Miss and junior forward Julia Nielacna from San Francisco. At USF, Nielacna was second on the team in scoring as a freshman in 2019-20. Last year, she averaged 8.0 points per game while shooting 44-percent from the field and 35-percent from three. As a freshman last season at Ole Miss, Dumitrescu averaged 4.5 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in six games before missing the rest of the season due to injury.