Cal Poly Opens Big West Championships Tuesday Against UC Riverside
3/6/2023 2:54:00 PM | Women's Basketball
WEEKLY NOTES (PDF)
HENDERSON, Nev. — Having ended the regular season winning four of its final six games, the Cal Poly women's basketball team heads into the Big West Championships as the No. 7 seed and will play No. 10 seed UC Riverside in the first round Tuesday at the Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nev.
Tip time between the Mustangs (10-17, 7-12 BW) and Highlanders (5-25, 3-17 BW) is set for 2:30 p.m. with the game airing live on ESPN+ and locally on the Central Coast on ESPN Radio 1280 with Chris Sylvester providing play-by-play.
The winner will go on to face No. 2 seed Long Beach State in the quarterfinals Wednesday at 6 p.m.
During the regular season, the Mustangs saw big improvements from last season to this season under first year head coach Shanele Stires. They more than tripled their win total from last year and have done so despite dealing with numerous injuries to several players throughout the season. Not to mention losing last year's leader in scoring in assists in point guard Maddie Vick to a season-ending knee injury before the season even got going.
Sophomore guard Annika Shah leads the team in scoring at 9.7 points per game with graduate guard/forward Oumou Toure right behind her at 9.6 per game. During conference play it has been Toure who has been playing some of her best basketball, averaging a team-leading 12 points per game.
Shah also leads the team in assists at three per game and is tops in the Big West in assist to turnover ratio at 1.8. She 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.
Junior forward Natalia Ackerman leads Cal Poly and is eighth in the Big West in rebounding at six per game. She's also fourth in the conference in blocks at 1.2 per game. In Cal Poly's last game against UC Riverside, she nearly had a triple-double with 14 points, 13 rebounds, and a career-high seven blocks, just two shy of tying the program record.
Another strong rebounder for Cal Poly this year has been guard Sydney Bourland. She's recorded double digit rebounds four times and during conference play is averaging 6.7 boards per game.
Tough defense continues to be the staple for the Mustangs this season. In nine of the 10 wins this year, Cal Poly has held its opponents to 53 points or less.
Crashing the glass, the Mustangs are second in the Big West in offensive rebounds per game at 11. Cal Poly has collected double-digit offensive rebounds in 10 of the last 12 games
After falling in the first round of last year's tournament, Cal Poly will be seeking its first Big West Championships win since the 2020-21 season.
Scouting UC Riverside: Currently on a eight game losing skid, the Highlanders finished the regular season last in the Big West standings at 3-17. Cal Poly won both meetings against UC Riverside this season, including a buzzer beating win at home. Guard Jordan Webster leads UC Riverside in scoring at 12.7 points per game which ranks ninth in the conference. Cal Poly has won six of the last seven meetings and leads the all time series 41-38.
Willett Moves Up Record Book: Earlier this season, senior guard Maddie Willett moved into 30th in career points at Cal Poly with 745 points scored. She is 17 points away from moving into 29th.
Shah Leads The Scoring: Sophomore guard Annika Shah leads the Mustangs in scoring this season at 9.7 points per game. That's an improvement of nearly 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 11 times, including over 20 twice and has led the team in scoring in eight of the 27 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.
HENDERSON, Nev. — Having ended the regular season winning four of its final six games, the Cal Poly women's basketball team heads into the Big West Championships as the No. 7 seed and will play No. 10 seed UC Riverside in the first round Tuesday at the Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nev.
Tip time between the Mustangs (10-17, 7-12 BW) and Highlanders (5-25, 3-17 BW) is set for 2:30 p.m. with the game airing live on ESPN+ and locally on the Central Coast on ESPN Radio 1280 with Chris Sylvester providing play-by-play.
The winner will go on to face No. 2 seed Long Beach State in the quarterfinals Wednesday at 6 p.m.
During the regular season, the Mustangs saw big improvements from last season to this season under first year head coach Shanele Stires. They more than tripled their win total from last year and have done so despite dealing with numerous injuries to several players throughout the season. Not to mention losing last year's leader in scoring in assists in point guard Maddie Vick to a season-ending knee injury before the season even got going.
Sophomore guard Annika Shah leads the team in scoring at 9.7 points per game with graduate guard/forward Oumou Toure right behind her at 9.6 per game. During conference play it has been Toure who has been playing some of her best basketball, averaging a team-leading 12 points per game.
Shah also leads the team in assists at three per game and is tops in the Big West in assist to turnover ratio at 1.8. She 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.
Junior forward Natalia Ackerman leads Cal Poly and is eighth in the Big West in rebounding at six per game. She's also fourth in the conference in blocks at 1.2 per game. In Cal Poly's last game against UC Riverside, she nearly had a triple-double with 14 points, 13 rebounds, and a career-high seven blocks, just two shy of tying the program record.
Another strong rebounder for Cal Poly this year has been guard Sydney Bourland. She's recorded double digit rebounds four times and during conference play is averaging 6.7 boards per game.
Tough defense continues to be the staple for the Mustangs this season. In nine of the 10 wins this year, Cal Poly has held its opponents to 53 points or less.
Crashing the glass, the Mustangs are second in the Big West in offensive rebounds per game at 11. Cal Poly has collected double-digit offensive rebounds in 10 of the last 12 games
After falling in the first round of last year's tournament, Cal Poly will be seeking its first Big West Championships win since the 2020-21 season.
Scouting UC Riverside: Currently on a eight game losing skid, the Highlanders finished the regular season last in the Big West standings at 3-17. Cal Poly won both meetings against UC Riverside this season, including a buzzer beating win at home. Guard Jordan Webster leads UC Riverside in scoring at 12.7 points per game which ranks ninth in the conference. Cal Poly has won six of the last seven meetings and leads the all time series 41-38.
Willett Moves Up Record Book: Earlier this season, senior guard Maddie Willett moved into 30th in career points at Cal Poly with 745 points scored. She is 17 points away from moving into 29th.
Shah Leads The Scoring: Sophomore guard Annika Shah leads the Mustangs in scoring this season at 9.7 points per game. That's an improvement of nearly 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 11 times, including over 20 twice and has led the team in scoring in eight of the 27 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.
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