Mustangs Begin Big West Play This Week at Long Beach State, Fullerton

Thursday, December 30

Long Beach, CA

7 P.M.

Long Beach State

Mustangs Begin Big West Play This Week at Long Beach State, Fullerton

12/28/2021 2:44:00 PM | Women's Basketball

WEEKLY NOTES (PDF)

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — With non-conference play now wrapped up, the Cal Poly women's basketball team will begin Big West Conference play this week on the road at Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton. The Mustangs (1-8) will face the Beach on Thursday at 7 p.m. from the Walter Pyramid. They will then take on the Titans on Saturday at 2 p.m. Both games will be streamed live on ESPN+. Links to those as well as live stats can be found on the schedule page. Last season, Cal Poly finished sixth in the Big West standings during the regular season with an 8-8 record, its highest finish since the 2017-18 season when they were second with an 11-5 record. The Mustangs are coming off a tough 66-64 overtime loss to California Baptist last week, a team that lost just one game last season. Senior forward Hannah Scanlan recorded her first double-double of the season, finishing with season-highs of 19 points and 12 rebounds. Graduate forward Kirsty Brown also finished with a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds, her second of the season. In that game, Cal Poly trailed 55-53 with four seconds remaining in the fourth quarter when junior guard Maddie Willett was fouled and made two free throws to send it to overtime. In overtime, the Mustangs took a 64-62 lead with 50 seconds remaining. CBU tied it with a basket on their next possession. Following a turnover on Cal Poly's next possession, the Lancers' Ane Olaeta made both free throws after being fouled with four seconds left to seal the 66-64 win. Scanlan has scored double digits in each of the last two games. She is now third on the team in scoring at 8.5 points per game and second in rebounding at 5.0 per game. Junior guard Maddie Vick, who has scored double digits in five games, leads the Mustangs in scoring with 11.0 points per game and in assists with 3.7 per game. Willett is right behind her at 10.3 points per game and leads the team in made threes (11) and three point percentage (28.9). With non-conference play now done for all Big West teams, the Mustangs rank fourth in the conference in defensive rebounds per game (28.11) and fifth in offensive rebounds per game (11.56). Long Beach State finished non-conference play with the best record amongst the Big West at 7-1. They won their first seven games before losing to Oregon 68-59 in their last game on Dec. 11. A balanced team, they have four players who are averaging at least 10 points per game. As a team, the Beach leads the Big West in scoring defense, holding opponents to about 53 points per game so far. They also lead the Big West steals and turnover margin. Cal Poly won all three matchups last season against Long Beach State, including a 61-60 win in the quarterfinals of the Big West Tournament in which Maddie Willett hit the game-winning shot. The Titans head into the week with a 5-5 record after non-conference play and have lost their last two games. They have three players averaging double figures, led by freshman guard Lily Wahinekapu's 13.2 points per game. Wahinekapu is also second in the conference in assists at 4.6 per game. The Mustangs split the series last season with the Titans. Brown Nearing Program Record: Kirsty Brown, a fifth-year player, needs to play in just 14 more games to become the Mustangs' program leader in career games played. The record is 124 and she currently sits at 111. 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. Graduate 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.