As Cal Poly took the ball out for the first time at the beginning of the first quarter, the UC Irvine defense broke into a full-court press, a highly aggressive defensive scheme rarely seen early in games.
This didn’t surprise the Mustangs, as they’ve seen this type of defense against them all season, but the Anteaters’ aggressiveness and physicality quickly overwhelmed them, forcing poor shots and turnovers.
In a highly anticipated matchup between the third-place Mustangs (16-12, 12-7 Big West) and the second-place Anteaters (20-8, 15-4 Big West), the Mustangs were dominated at home, losing by a score of 65-31 on Thursday, March 7.
This was the first time the teams clashed this year, as an illness among the Mustangs squad in February derailed their first matchup and resulted in a forfeit for Cal Poly.
Their introductions didn’t go well for the Mustangs, as they were beaten in nearly every offensive category, punctuated by a third quarter where they scored just two points.
“I think that Irvine came out strong,” senior forward Natalia Ackerman said. “I think they’re really athletic. We brought it defensively. I just don’t think it translated offensively. It was a big struggle transitioning our defense to our offense.”
After winning Big West Player of the Week, Ackerman finished the game with seven points and 10 rebounds. She has been dominant all season and, coming into Saturday’s game built a streak of four straight double-doubles leading into Saturday’s game.
“The physicality of the game and the defensive energy of Irvine, I think it stifled our offensive effectiveness. And our inability to score the ball just kind of snowballed. Our players got frustrated, and our defensive energy waned,” head coach Shanele Stires said.
The offensive efficiency of the Mustangs was critically low. They shot 25% from the field and just 1 of 16 from the three-point line.
Possibly even more telling, they shot under 50% from the free throw line, an area they came into the game leading in the Big West.
“Obviously, we still have a lot to play for, but I think there’s a lot that we can learn from it,” Stires said. “I think you can look at it flippantly and go, ‘Let’s just move on, and get ready for Saturday.’ I’m not going to do that. We’re going to try to learn from it and get better from it.”
With the loss, the Mustangs tie with UC Riverside and UC Davis for the third-best record in the Big West. Due to their tiebreaker with UC Davis, a win in their final game this weekend would secure a top-four placement and first-round bye in the playoffs.
“We’re gonna take this as a learning experience,” Ackerman said. “I think that we’re gonna really feed off of this and come out on top.”
On Saturday, the Mustangs will play their final game of the regular season, a home matchup against UC San Diego at 2 p.m.