Mustangs Welcome Long Beach State to Mott Athletics Center Thursday

Thursday, January 12

San Luis Obispo, Calif.

7 P.M.

Long Beach State

Tickets

Photo by: Owen Main | Cal Poly Athletics

Mustangs Welcome Long Beach State to Mott Athletics Center Thursday

1/11/2023 1:58:00 PM | Women's Basketball

WEEKLY NOTES (PDF)

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — After splitting a pair of games last week, the Cal Poly women's basketball team will host Long Beach State Thursday for its lone game of the week.

The Mustangs (4-8, 1-3 BW) will face The Beach (7-7, 2-2 BW) Thursday at 7 p.m. inside Mott Athletics Center. The game was originally scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 11 at 6 p.m. but was moved to Thursday due to a strong storm that moved through the San Luis Obispo area earlier in the week.

The game will be streamed live on ESPN+. Links to that as well as live stats to follow can be found on the schedule page.

After getting their first Big West win under first year head coach Shanele Stires against CSU Bakersfield last Thursday, Cal Poly fell in a close road contest to UCSB, 65-59. Despite trailing by 12 at halftime to the Gauchos, picked second in the Big West Preseason Coaches' Poll, the Mustangs fought their way back to within one in the fourth quarter. Junior guard Taylor Wu led the Mustangs in scoring for a second consecutive game, putting up a season-high 15 points. Senior guard Maddie Willett posted season-highs of 12 points and eight rebounds while graduate guard Oumou Toure added 11 points.

Sophomore guard Annika Shah continues to lead the team in scoring at 11.1 points per game while also leading the team is assists at 2.7 per game. Her 37.5 percent shooting clip from three ranks third in the Big West and 94th in the nation.

In all four of Cal Poly's wins this season, the Mustangs have held opponents to 53 points or less, led at halftime, had more rebounds and assists, and shot a higher percentage for the game.

Through the first 12 games of the season, the Mustangs rank third in the conference in offensive rebounds at 11.9 per game. They had a season-high 16 of them against NAU.

Following Thursday's game, Cal Poly will host UC Riverside Monday, Jan. 16 at 5 p.m. at Mott Athletics Center.

Scouting LBSU: After winning its first two games of Big West play, Long Beach State has lost its last two games last week against CSUN and UC Irvine. They have been without starting senior guard Ma'Qhi Berry the last three games. Berry leads the Big West in assists at 4.7 per game. The Beach do have three players who rank in the top-20 in the Big West in scoring. Senior guard Tori Harris leads the way at 12.6 points per game, senior guard Malia Bambrick is right behind at 12.5 points per game, and junior guard Kianna Hamilton-Fisher averages 10.3 points per game. Picked to finish third in the Big West Preseason Coaches' Poll, LBSU leads the conference and is eighth in the nation in steals at 12.4 per game. They are also top three in the Big West in both scoring offense and defense.

Shah Leads The Scoring: Sophomore guard Annika Shah leads the Mustangs in scoring this season at 11.1 points per game. That's an improvement of seven points more than what she averaged as a freshman last season, the biggest jump of anyone on the team. She's scored in double figures five times, including over 20 twice and has led the team in scoring in six of the 12 games so far.

Block Party: Junior forward Natalia Ackerman leads the Mustangs in blocks with seven for the season. Six of those came last week when she had three blocks in each game against CSU Bakersfield and UCSB. She also leads the team in rebounding at 5.4 per game and set her season-high of 10 last week against UCSB.

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.