Mustangs Welcome UCSB, CSUN to Mott This Week

Thursday, January 6

San Luis Obispo, Calif.

7 P.M.

UCSB

Tickets

Photo by: Owen Main | Cal Poly Athletics

Mustangs Welcome UCSB, CSUN to Mott This Week

1/4/2022 2:40:00 PM | Women's Basketball

WEEKLY NOTES (PDF)

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Looking to snap a seven-game losing skid, the Cal Poly women's basketball team will play its first Big West conference home games of the year this week when playing host to UCSB and CSUN. The Mustangs (1-9, 0-1 BWC) will face the Gauchos (6-3, 0-0 BWC) Thursday at 7 p.m. and the Matadors (4-6, 0-0 BWC) Saturday at 2 p.m. Both games will be video streamed live on ESPN+ and audio streamed on GoPoly.com. Links to those as well as live stats can be found on the schedule page. Last week, Cal Poly opened Big West play on the road at Long Beach State with a 76-54 loss. Junior forward Julia Nielacna had team-highs of 13 points and six rebounds and junior guard Maddie Willett had 12 points, six rebounds, a career-high five assists, and a career-high four steals for the Mustangs who were playing without senior forward Hannah Scanlan who had led Cal Poly in scoring in each of the previous two games. While Cal Poly shot 42 percent from the field and made a season-high seven threes, the Mustangs also matched a season-high with 23 turnovers which Long Beach State turned into 20 points. The Mustangs were supposed to also play Cal State Fullerton last Saturday but the game was canceled due to COVID protocols within the Titan program. Through the first 10 games of the season, Willett leads the team in scoring at 10.5 points per game as well as made threes with 13 and has scored in double-digits five times. Junior guard Maddie Vick is second on the team in scoring at 10.3 points per game and leads the team in assists at 3.6 per contest. Vick also leads the team and is third in the conference at 34.6 minutes per game and has played at least 35 minutes in each of the last six games. Graduate forward Kirsty Brown is fourth on the team in scoring at 7.6 points per game and leads the team in rebounds with 6.9 per game, which is tied for eighth amongst Big West players. She has also had two double-doubles on the year. UCSB enters Thursday contest with a 6-3 overall record. Last week, both of their scheduled Big West games against UC San Diego and UC Irvine were canceled. Their last game was Dec. 21 in which they defeated San Jose State 81-51. The Gauchos are led by forward/center Ila Lane's 13.9 points per game which ranks fourth in the Big West. She also leads the conference in rebounds per game at 9.5 and field goal percentage at 59.5%. They also have a pair of guards who are averaging double figure points. Last year, Cal Poly split the season series with UCSB. CSUN, who is 4-6 on the year, has not been able to play since Dec. 21 due to COVID protocols. Their two scheduled Big West games last week were canceled and their game scheduled for this Thursday at CSU Bakersfield has already been canceled. The Matadors did not compete in the 2020-21 season after the players collectively decided not to play due to COVID concerns. The Matadors are led by forward Tess Amundsen's 13.5 points per game which ranks fifth in the Big West. She's also second in the Big West in field goal percentage (50.5). Cal Poly and CSUN last met in the 2019-20 season with the Mustangs winning both matchups. Brown Nearing Program Record: Kirsty Brown, a fifth-year player, needs to play in just 13 more games to become the Mustangs' program leader in career games played. The record is 124 and she currently sits at 112. 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 Nelacna 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.