Mustangs Head to Pacific Northwest for Final Non-Conference Games

Monday, December 19

Seattle, WA

2 P.M.

Seattle University

Photo by: Owen Main | Cal Poly Athletics

Mustangs Head to Pacific Northwest for Final Non-Conference Games

12/14/2022 1:41:00 PM | Women's Basketball

WEEKLY NOTES (PDF)

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — After a week off, the Cal Poly women's basketball team heads to the Pacific Northwest next week for its final two non-conference games of the season before Big West play begins. The Mustangs (3-5) will face Seattle University Monday, Dec. 19 at 2 p.m. They will then travel to take on Montana State Wednesday, Dec. 21 at 6 p.m. PT. Both games will be streamed live on ESPN+. Links to those as well as live stats to follow can be found on the schedule page. These will be Cal Poly's first road games since Nov. 18. So far, the Mustangs are 1-2 in road games this season. In their last road game, they beat Fresno State 48-47 via a game-winning layup by sophomore guard Annika Shah. Through the first seven eight games of the season, Cal Poly's strength of schedule ranks 25th in the country. The Mustangs have already played a now-No. 10 UCLA team, No. 2 Stanford, and No. 1 South Carolina. Shah leads the team in scoring at 11.5 points per game while also leading the team is assists at 3.0 per game and assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.50 which ranks third in the Big West. She's led the team in scoring in each of the last five games. Her 44 percent shooting clip from three ranks second in the Big West and 57th in the nation. In the Mustangs' last game, a 79-76 overtime loss to Northern Arizona, Cal Poly saw three players put up career-highs. Shah scored a career-high 20 points, sophomore guard Jazzy Anousinh poured in a career-high 15 points, and freshman forward Sierra Lichtie added career-highs of 13 points and six rebounds. In all three of Cal Poly's wins this season, the Mustangs have shot at least 41 percent from the field, 74 percent from the free throw line, and have held opponents to 53 points or less. Following Wednesday's game against Montana State, the Mustangs will be off until Dec. 29 when they open Big West on the road at CSUN. Scouting Seattle: The Redhawks are winless on the season so far at 0-9. They are coming off a 66-60 loss to Eastern Washington it their last game. Prior to that, they lost to the Big West's CSUN 97-90. Junior guard Peyton Howard leads Seattle in scoring at 10 points per game and has scored 18 in each of the last two games. Cal Poly leads the all-time series 3-2. However, Seattle won the last meeting in the 2019-20 season. Scouting Montana State: After winning the Big Sky last season and making it to the NCAA Tournament, the Bobcats are off to a 6-4 start this year. They won four of their first five games to start the season. Last week, they blew out Saint Mary's at home 91-56 to improve to 4-2 in Bozeman this year. Montana State leads the all-time series with the Mustangs 3-1, most recently a 67-55 win last year in San Luis Obispo. Returning Mustangs: Despite losing two starters from last year, Cal Poly brings back plenty from last year's team. Two of the team's top three scorers are back this year. Senior guard Maddie Willett returns after being second on the team in scoring last year at 8.9 ppg while leading the team in made threes and three point percentage. Senior forward Julia Nielacna is also back after averaging 8.3 ppg last season while playing in 24 of 25 games and starting 11. In addition to those two, there are five players back this season who played in at least 22 games last year. New Stangs: Cal Poly added seven newcomers to this year's team, four freshmen and three Division I transfers. The three transfers consist of graduate student Nikola Kovacikova, graduate student Oumou Toure, and junior Taylor Wu. Kovacikova comes to Cal Poly after previously playing at both Penn and Georgetown. Last season at Penn, she played in 19 games with eight starts. Off the court, she earned Penn's Norman J. Goldring Prize and George H. Frazier Prize which is given to a senior female student-athlete with the highest GPA. She spent her first two collegiate seasons at Georgetown. As a sophomore in 2019-20, she appeared in 27 games with 12 starts and was the Hoyas' third-leading scorer, averaging 7.9 ppg. Toure comes to Cal Poly after having spent the last three years at Butler. She played her freshman season before missing the next two due to injury and the COVID pandemic. As a freshman in 2019-20, she was named to the Big East All-Freshman Team. That season, she appeared in 27 games, making 20 starts and ranked second on the team in scoring at 9.1 points per game while shooting 46 percent from the field to go along with 6.1 rebounds per game. She also led the Big East and ranked 45th in the NCAA in steals per game at 2.33. Wu spent the last three seasons at California Baptist University where she played in 70 career games. She made her mark as a freshman in 2019-20, averaging 6.6 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 1.7 apg in 18.4 minutes per game. She broke the program's freshman single game scoring record after dropping 37 points against Ottawa (AZ) and in the same game broke the program record for threes made in a game with 10. As a sophomore, she started 19 of 27 games, averaging 8.9 ppg, 1.7 apg, and 21.9 minutes per game. She scored in double figures 11 times including a season-high 15 against Pepperdine.