Mustangs Begin Big West Play This Week Against CSUN, Hawai’i

Thursday, December 29

Northridge, CA

7 P.M.

CSUN

Mustangs Begin Big West Play This Week Against CSUN, Hawai’i

12/27/2022 3:06:00 PM | Women's Basketball

WEEKLY NOTES (PDF)

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Having concluded non-conference play already having matched its win total from all of last season, the Cal Poly women's basketball team will open Big West play this week. The Mustangs (3-5) will start conference play Thursday on the road at CSUN at 7 p.m. They then return to Mott Athletics Center for the Big West home opener Saturday against defending Big West champion Hawai'i at 2 p.m. 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 games since Dec. 10 after having their final two scheduled non-conference games against Seattle and Montana State last week canceled due to health and safety protocols. 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 eight games of the season, Cal Poly's strength of schedule ranks 13th 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 third in the Big West and 42nd 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. After non-conference play, the Mustangs rank third in the Big West in three-point percentage at 32.4. They also rank third in the conference in offensive rebounds at 11.5 per game. Following Saturday's game against Hawai'i, the Mustangs will host CSU Bakersfield Thursday, Jan. 5 at 6 p.m. inside Mott Athletics Center. Scouting CSUN: The Matadors went 1-9 during non-conference play. They picked up their first win of the season Dec. 10 against Seattle. Graduate forward Tess Amundsen leads CSUN in scoring at 13.2 points per game. Last year, Amundsen earned Second Team All-Big West honors while leading all of Division I in three-point percentage at 49.1. Cal Poly split the season series with the Matadors last season but have won three of the last four meetings and lead the all-time series 39-35. Scouting Hawai'i: The Rainbow Wahine won both the Big West regular season and postseason titles in 2021-22. They were picked to finish first again this year in the Big West Preseason Coaches' Poll despite the loss of last year's Big West Player of the Year in Amy Atwell. Hawai'i returns four starters from last year's team while having added last year's Big West Freshman of the Year in Lily Wahinekapu as a transfer from Cal State Fullerton. They are 2-9 so far this year after non-conference play. Sophomore guard Daejah Phillips leads the team in scoring at 11.9 points per game with Wahinekapu at 10.4 per game. Hawai'i has won six of the last seven meetings and just leads the all-time series 13-11. 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.