Montana State
Mustangs Head to State of Montana for Two Games This Week
11/11/2024 5:30:00 PM | Women's Basketball
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — After opening the 2024-25 season last week with two games, Cal Poly women’s basketball heads up to the state of Montana this week for road games at Montana State and the University of Montana.
The Mustangs (1-1) will face Montana State (2-0) Tuesday at 10 a.m. PT. They then head to Missoula Thursday to face Montana at 7 p.m. PT. Both games will be broadcast on ESPN+ and live stats will also be available for fans to follow. Links to both of those can be found on the schedule page.
In the opening week of the season last week, Cal Poly started at home with a 72-40 win over UC Merced to earn their first win of the season. They then went on the road and fell against one of the top teams in all of college basketball in No. 3 USC.
The Mustangs are coming off their best season in a decade. Last year, head coach Shanele Stires directed the team to a 17-14 overall record in her second season at the helm, finishing tied for third in the Big West regular season standings and went to the program’s first WNIT postseason tournament since 2014.
Cal Poly returns six letterwinners from that team, including three starters. They are headlined by senior guard Annika Shah, who earned Honorable Mention All-Big West honors last season after being second on the team in scoring and leading the team in three pointers made and three point percentage. She also set the program record last year for highest free throw percentage, shooting 94.4 percent.
Two starters also back are redshirt sophomore forward Sierra Lichtie, who was fourth on the team in scoring last year, and senior guard Sydney Bourland who was fifth on the team in scoring and led the team in minutes. They also return their top two scorers off the bench in sophomore forward Mary Carter who was named to the Big West All-Freshman team last year and was second on the team in threes made as well as senior guard Sidney Richards who averaged 6.2 points per game last year.
The Mustangs have nine newcomers for the second straight year, eight freshmen and one grad transfer. The transfer is Ashley Hiraki, who played four years at Santa Clara and averaged 6.1 points per game in 118 career games there.
MUSTANGS VERSUS MONTANA STATE: Cal Poly is 1-3 all-time against Montana State and have never won in Bozeman. Cal Poly’s lone win against the Bobcats was in the 2015-16 season at home.
MUSTANGS VERSUS MONTANA: Cal Poly is 0-4 all-time against the Grizzlies. The first three meetings took place in the 1990’s and the two teams were idle against each other until last season when the Mustangs hosted Montana, falling 67-65.
SHAH SCORES: Senior guard Annika Shah comes into the season with 656 career points scored, the most by any Mustang on the team. She will seek to become the 16th player in program history to hit the 1,000 career points milestone. She is also on track to become the program’s leader in career free throw percentage as she currently sits at 91.9 percent for her career. The current leader in that category is Dynn Leaupepe, who was 81.8 percent for her career.
TURN AROUND: In her first two seasons as head coach, Shanele Stires has accumulated a record of 27-32 overall and 20-19 in Big West play. She has improved Cal Poly win total in each year, taking a three win team in 2022 to 10 in 2023 and 17 last year.
HOME COOKIN’: Since 2008, Cal Poly is 136-83 (.621) in games played at Mott Athletics Center.
LOOKING AHEAD: Cal Poly returns home next week for a pair of games. The first will be Tuesday, Nov. 19 against Life Pacific before hosting Idaho Saturday, Nov. 23.
