Cal Poly Welcomes UC Irvine, CSUN to Mott Athletics Center This Week

Thursday, February 9

San Luis Obispo, Calif.

6 P.M.

UC Irvine

Tickets

Cal Poly Welcomes UC Irvine, CSUN to Mott Athletics Center This Week

2/7/2023 2:18:00 PM | Women's Basketball

WEEKLY NOTES (PDF)

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Coming off its most prominent win of the season last week beating UCSB at home, the Cal Poly women's basketball team returns to Mott Athletics Center this week for a pair of Big West games against UC Irvine Thursday and CSUN Saturday.

Tip time between Mustangs (6-14, 3-9 BW) and Anteaters (17-5, 9-2 BW) Thursday is set for 6 p.m. Cal Poly will face the Matadors (4-18, 3-9 BW) for the second and final time this season at 2 p.m. Saturday.

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

Thursday's game against UC Irvine is Faculty and Staff Appreciation Night. All Cal Poly faculty and staff receive up to four free tickets if they show their staff ID.

After last Thursday's win over the Gauchos, the Mustangs have already doubled their win total from last year under first year head coach Shanele Stires at just over the halfway point of the conference season and are continuing to see improvement with a young team that consists of nine underclassmen and despite having to deal with several injuries that has seen the team down to 10 available players the last six games.

However, recently it has been one of the upperclassmen who has been coming on strong as of late. Over the last four games, graduate guard Oumou Toure is averaging 17 points per game, nearly three steals per game, and is shooting 53 percent during that stretch, leading the Mustangs in scoring in each of those games. During conference play, Toure is averaging 11.4 points per game which leads the team in that span.

Toure also leads the team in offensive rebounding at 2.1 per game, something the Mustangs do very well as a team. They are averaging 11.5 offensive rebounds per game this season which ranks second in the Big West. In each of the last six games, Cal Poly has pulled down double digit offensive rebounds.

It's been defense that has been the calling card for the Mustangs this season. In five of Cal Poly's six wins so far, the Mustangs have held opponents to 53 points or less.

Sophomore guard Annika Shah continues to lead the team in scoring at 10.4 points per game and assists at 2.8 per game. Shah also has two blocks for the season and, at 5'3, is the second shortest player in Division I to record a block this year. Only Oklahoma's Nevaeh Tot, who is 5'2, is shorter who has a block.

Following Saturday's game against the Matadors, the Mustangs will hit the road Wednesday, Feb. 15 to face CSU Bakersfield at 7 p.m.

Scouting UC Irvine: The Anteaters are currently in second place in the Big West standings at 9-2. After starting 7-0, they have gone 2-2 since losing one of their starting guards, Olivia Williams, to injury. They ranks No. 1 in the Big West in scoring defense and No. 2 in scoring offense. They are also second in the league in steals and forcing turnovers, and third in rebounding. They are led in scoring by guard Hunter Hernandez's 11 points per game. She's scored double digits in seven of the last eight games. This will be the first meeting this season with UC Irvine. Cal Poly leads the all-time series but the Mustangs will be looking to snap a five-game losing streak to the Anteaters.

Scouting CSUN: After starting Big West play 3-0, the Matadors have lost nine straight since. The Mustangs will be looking to avenge their 10 point loss to CSUN to open conference play. Tess Amundsen and Jordyn Jackson both rank in the top five in the Big West in scoring at over 13 points per game.

Shah Leads The Scoring: Sophomore guard Annika Shah leads the Mustangs in scoring this season at 10.4 points per game. That's an improvement of more than six 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 nine times, including over 20 twice and has led the team in scoring in seven of the 20 games so far.

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.