Cal Poly Women’s Basketball fell to the Pacific Tigers 63-43 on Thursday, March 21, in the first round of the Women’s National Invitational Tournament at the Alex G. Spanos Center.
The Mustangs’ (17-13) appearance against Pacific (18-14) in the WNIT was its fourth time receiving an invite in program history.
The Mustangs were without senior Natalia Ackerman due to injury. Ackerman led the team in blocks and field goal percentage in the Big West and was named to the All-Big West First Team and the Big West All-Defensive First Team.
Turnover issues persist
The Mustangs started the game with a great offensive possession that led to an open three, but the team followed up the strong start with four straight turnovers. The Mustangs have struggled all season taking care of the ball, and tonight was no different, as the team averages 19.9 giveaways a game.
In the first quarter, the Mustangs only scored four points and committed eight turnovers.
However, Pacific also struggled to keep possession of the ball. The home team committed 24 turnovers, compared to the Mustangs’ 17.
Freshman step up
With no Ackerman, the Mustangs needed to find a spark from elsewhere. The Mustangs found a boost from two of their true freshmen: Mary Carter and Jordan Hoffman.
Late in the third quarter, the Mustangs found themselves down by 11 points. Carter helped put a run together after making two threes. She finished the game as the leading scorer for the Mustangs with 12 points on 4-8 shooting from the three-point line and seven rebounds
Hoffman earned herself two trips to the free-throw line by attacking the basket hard early in the fourth quarter. This gave Cal Poly some opportunities to come back, but they were unsuccessful.
Carter and Hoffman will look to take even bigger roles on the team next year and build on a strong close to the season.
Momentum Going into Halftime
Cal Poly collected a few buckets and went on an 8-0 to end the half, including a buzzer-beating layup by junior Sydney Bourland to cut the Tiger’ lead down to just seven. They kept it tight with the Tigers to start the half as neither team was able to get a flow offensively.
Pacific found its groove halfway through the fourth quarter, scoring and converted to three-point plays to give it the push it needed to pull away from the Mustangs.
“We got the we got the we got the game within a couple possessions a couple of times,” head coach Shanele Stires said, “but we just didn’t have the punch that we needed offensively to get over the hump.”
Struggles Making Shots
Without Ackerman, who is the most efficient player on the team, the Mustangs struggled to make shots. Their season low in field goal percentage coming into the game against Pacific was against Stanford way back in November at 22.7%.
On Thursday, the Mustangs struggled to find the bottom of the net. They finished the game with a season-low 21.5% from the field, only converting 14 of their 65 shot attempts.
Saying Goodbye to the Graduate Students and Seniors
After an incredible season, the Mustangs will be graduating three of their players: graduate student Ania McNicholas, graduate Amanda Olinger and Ackerman.
All three players made huge impacts on the team. McNicholas was the third-leading scorer this season. Olinger grabbed a team-best 35 offensive rebounds. Ackerman was an offensive and defensive focal point.
“We love Ania and we love Amanda and we love Natalia,” Stires said after the game. “They’re just great kids, they have great character.”
The Mustangs will look forward to some time off to recover from their season and will start off-season training to prepare for next season.
“We’re real close,” Stires said. “That next step still feels like it’s pretty far away but looking at where we are at I’m pretty excited that we’ve been able to have this level of success in a short period of time.”