Victor Joseph was really good last Thursday. By Owen Main

With their win over CSUN and the happenings in the Big West over the weekend, Cal Poly is now guaranteed a spot in the Big West Conference Tournament. Whether they’re a 7 or 8 seed is still to be determined, but we know some things already. 

Twice as nice

Having already played a triple-overtime game and an overtime game at Mott this season, the Mustangs bridged the gap and played a double overtime thriller against CSUN in their only game last week. Victor Joseph scored a career-high 36 points in the senior night win. 

Fellow senior Aleks Abrams grabbed 18 big rebounds for the Mustangs, who notched their fourth conference win of the season. 

The game looked like it was Cal Poly’s to take until CSUN forced some turnovers in the second half and got themselves a four-point lead late in the game. But three pointers by Joseph and some clutch play down the stretch allowed Cal Poly to emerge victorious.

Cal Poly isn’t likely to play late on Thursday

Thursday is SO much fun at the Big West Tournament. Four games in a row at the Honda Center. Usually the late games feature local teams, so if Cal Poly earns the 7 or 8 seed and plays UC Davis or even UCSB, they’re likely to play in the noon game. If they play UC Irvine, the Mustangs could play in game 2 or 3 — probably not the late game. 

Lucky number 7?

The last four seasons, Cal Poly has finished in 7th place in the regular season. The first of those years, the Mustangs went 6-10 in Big West play and ran through the tournament en route to an NCAA Tournament bid. In fact, three of the past four seasons have seen the Mustangs notch a 6-10 Big West record. The outlier, 2015-16, saw Cal Poly earn their 7-seed with a 4-12 record. If they beat UC Riverside on Thursday, Cal Poly will be assured the seventh seed for the fifth season in a row. 

What’s next?

I’m probably getting ahead of myself with the conference tournament talk, but Cal Poly plays two games this week. The first game will be at UC Riverside on Thursday night at 7pm. After their coach was fired and their best player was suspended to start conference play, the Highlanders have tried to right the ship. Dikymbe Martin, one of the best guards in the conference, is back and the Highlanders have gone 3-3 over their last six games and hope to secure their own Big West Tournament spot with a win. 

After the Riverside game, Cal Poly will finish their conference regular season like they started it — against rival UCSB. This time, the game will be in Goleta and you know the Gauchos will be looking for blood after the Mustangs knocked them off at home in the conference opener in SLO. Game time Saturday night is also 7:00pm on UCSB’s senior night. 

Joseph earns Athlete of the Week

For his senior night exploits, Victor Joseph earned Big West Athlete of the Week last week. It’s more difficult to win that award when you only play one game in the week, but 36 points is a strong statement. 

Women heating up

Cal Poly women’s team is also heating up. Faith Mimnaugh’s squad has been squarely in the second tier of the Big West this year (UC Davis is on a tier of their own at 13-1 in Big West play). Going into the final week of Big West play, Cal Poly has a 1/2 game lead over UC Irvine and UCSB for second place. Cal Poly has just one game in their final week and it’s a tough one — Saturday night at Hawai’i. 

In the women’s bracket, the seedings matter quite a lot. The top two teams receive byes into the semi-finals of the tournament, while the third and fourth seeds (of nine) receive a bye into the quarterfinals. Winning their final game and finding a way to get into second place means that Cal Poly wouldn’t play a tournament game until Friday in the semi-finals in the Honda Center. 

If Irvine beats CSUN this week and win out, I think they’d have the inside track in a tiebreaker over UCSB and Cal Poly for second place. If they lose to CSUN, then Cal Poly and UCSB might be up for a tiebreaker. It’d be a messy tiebreaker. Let’s see how the early part of this week goes before we jump to conclusions. 

At any rate, the women’s hoops seniors are coming down the home stretch of their careers. Dynn and Lynn are going to go down in the Cal Poly record books when it’s all said and done and when this team is rolling, they have a legitimate shot against anyone in the Big West. 

Lynn’s AOTW

Lynn Leaupepe joined Victor Joseph on the men’s side to sweep the Big West’s Athlete of the Week awards in basketball. Her games of 16/14 and 18/14 helped Cal Poly into second place in the standings going into the final week. After being injured early in conference play, it seems Lynn has rounded back into form. That has to be a scary sight for Big West opponents. 

Photos by Owen Main

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The Cal Poly women’s basketball team opened the ShareSLO Holiday Beach Classic with a dud on Friday. Unable to get mid-range shots to fall and unable to contain Robert Morris’ balanced offensive attack, the Mustangs fell to the Colonials 66-50.

It was the first game Robert Morris had ever played in California, but it was the Mustangs who looked lost, shooting just 31 percent from the floor and turning the ball over 21 times. 

Lynn Leaupepe set the first half pace on Sunday afternoon against San Francisco. By Owen Main

After a day off on Saturday, Cal Poly faced San Francisco on Sunday and turned things around. After being held scoreless on Friday, Dynn Leaupepe scored 27 points and grabbed nine rebounds to go along with three steals in the win. Lynn Leaupepe, who led the team with 14 points in the first half, totaled 20 for the game to go along with six boards and a pair of steals. She was 10-10 from the free throw line. 

Starting at point guard for the injured Dye Stahley, Ayzhiana Basallo — a freshman from St. Ignatius in San Francisco — scored 16 points in 32 minutes while turning the ball over just twice. Basallo notched a team-high four assists against her hometown club.

With the win, Cal Poly ensured all three teams in the ShareSLO Holiday Beach Classic went 1-1 over the weekend. The Mustangs’ record improved to 2-3 on the young season. This week, they host Division II Cal State Monterey Bay on Tuesday night at 5:00 pm in Mott Athletic Center. 

Photos below by Owen Main. 

To see more photos or to purchase photos, click here. If you just want to contribute to the cause, Venmo @Owen-Main or paypal owen@fansmanship.com.  

Mott Athletics Center will host women’s basketball games each of the three days following Thanksgiving as three teams will compete in a round-robin format in the ShareSLO Holiday Beach Classic. 

Junior transfer Devin Stanback has made an immediate impact in the middle for Cal Poly this season. By Owen Main

On Thursday, Robert Morris will face Faith Mimnaugh’s host team. Like Cal Poly, Robert Morris of the Northeast Conference is 1-2 coming into the game. The Colonials will spend Thanksgiving Day on the Central Coast leading up to the Friday 2:00pm game. 

On Saturday, the Colonials will face San Francisco. Tip time is also 2:00pm. 

Sunday’s game brings Cal Poly back to face San Francisco for a noon tip-off. 

A senior-laden team, Cal Poly is led by fourth-year twins Dynn and Lynn Leaupepe. Lynn is averaging 19 points and 7.7 rebounds per game over Cal Poly’s first three, while Dynn averages 11 points and 4.3 rebounds. 

Devin Stanback (junior transfer from Pepperdine) has helped quickly, averaging 13 points per game. A stretch-four, Emily Anderson is fourth on the team in scoring in the young season at 8 points per game. 

Cal Poly’s roster features 10 upperclasmen and seven seniors and is led by Faith Mimnaugh, in her 21st season at Cal Poly. 

Photos below from November 16th game vs. Grand Canyon by Owen Main. To see more photos or to purchase photos, click here. If you just want to contribute to the cause, Venmo @Owen-Main or paypal owen@fansmanship.com. 

On Wednesday night, Cal Poly women’s basketball seniors Hannah Gilbert and Amanda Lovely finished their home careers with a 73-57 win over Cal State Fullerton at Mott Athletics Center. The duo combined for 23 points in the balanced Cal Poly scoring attack. 

Hannah Gilbert has been a solid four-year contributor in the post for Cal Poly. By Owen Main

The win moved Cal Poly to 7-8 in the Big West and, while they won’t likely be in the top five seeds, the Mustangs have proven they can compete with some of the best Big West schools.

With Gilbert’s four-year career done, I thought of a few things. First, Hannah is a Morro Bay Pirate. My father was as well, so I’ve always rooted for the Mustang center. 

It also made me think about what a great job Faith Mimnaugh has done generally keeping local basketball talent at Cal Poly. With Kristina Santiago, Molly Schlemer as just a few local alumni, there is precedent and a clear pathway for local athletes. Gilbert and Mary-Kate Evans are from San Luis Obispo county as well.

I’m not a guy who says that a ton of players have to be from local schools, but when there are local players who are good enough to play Division I basketball, it is really great for fans to see that coach Mimnaugh and company are able to keep those local players at Cal Poly. 

But I digress. Big congratulations to Hannah and Amanda. Good luck in the Big West Tournament next week, ladies!

Lisa Marie Sanchez scored 10 points against Fresno State. By Owen Main

Faith Mimnaugh’s Cal Poly women’s basketball team kept it entertaining. On Saturday afternoon at Mott Athletics Center, the Mustangs earned a 60-46 lead with 6:24 left in the fourth quarter and then didn’t score for nearly five minutes before the Leaupepe twins made four consecutive free throws in the final minute to ice the 64-60 win over the visiting Fresno State Bulldogs.

Cal Poly’s balanced attack was lead by Dynn Leaupepe, who came off the bench to score 12 points. Lisa Marie Sanchez and Beth Balbierz scored 11 apiece and Hannah Gilbert chipped in 10 points and 9 rebounds.

Fresno State kept themselves in the game, hitting 88 percent from the free throw line (21-24), but Cal Poly’s big fourth quarter lead was too much to overcome in the end.

Tribune article

Photos by Owen Main

Over 2,000 fans showed-up to Mott Athletics Center on Saturday afternoon. By Owen Main

They didn’t break the attendance record, but Faith Mimnaugh’s Cal Poly women’s basketball team won the prize they valued most on Saturday, beating defending conference champion Cal State Northridge 63-54 in front of 2,047 fans. The crowd was the second-largest showing in the history of the program.

Ariana Elegado led Cal Poly, tallying 22 points, five rebounds, four assists, and four steals, while playing 39 minutes.

Cal Poly got out to a 30-17 lead in the first half before CSUN cut the deficit to six at halftime. The Matadors continued their charge with a 21-4 run that straddled both halves to take a four point lead.

The lead didn’t last long though. Beth Balbierz answered with a three-pointer, Elegado a jumper, and Mary Kate Evans a three-pointer of her own to spur a 15-0 Mustang run, as Cal Poly once again built-up a double digit lead.

Cal Poly lost to the Matadors all three times they faced off a year ago, including in the Big West Tournament final. As Elegado detailed in the video below, revenge was definitely a motivating factor in this game.

Kristen Ale was the only other Mustang in double figures with 10 points to go along with six rebounds. Hannah Gilbert led the team in rebounds with seven while playing the game with strep throat.

Cal Poly is now 8-8 overall and 3-1 in Big West play, where they sit tied for second place behind Long Beach State. CSUN, the preseason conference favorite, drops to 2-2 in conference play.

Photos by Owen Main. To view on an iPhone or iPad, click here.

Rachel Koehler scored six points in the final minutes on Thursday night. By Owen Main

Ariana Elegado scored 19 points and dished-out eight assists to lead Cal Poly to a 70-65 victory over Hawai’i Thursday night in the Big West Conference opener. Elegado looked downright Tony Parker-like, contributing the basket or an assist on nearly every successful Cal Poly possession.

Sophomore Hannah Gilbert dropped-in 18 points and grabbed six rebounds and freshman Dynn Leaupepe for 13 points and six rebounds.

The game was typical of recent games between these two teams. Neither team led by more than 4 points for the first 36-plus minutes of the game.

Briana Harris came off the bench for the Rainbow Wahine to make five 3-pointers en route to 15 points. Ashleigh Karaitiana paced Hawai’i down low with 9 points and 9 rebounds.’

With Cal Poly’s lead cut to two points and 4:06 remaining in the second half, Rachel Koehler scored six straight points in a span of less than two minutes. Koehler had come on for Taryn Garza, who fouled out with over five minutes to play. Up until the bucket at 4:06, Koehler had zero points and four fouls in the game. The sophomore from Montana scored six of Cal Poly’s final eight points to help secure the victory.

After a four-game losing streak in December, the Mustangs are now 2-0 in 2015, 1-0 in conference play, and 6-7 overall this season.

While Cal State Northridge was the overwhelming preseason favorite to win the Big West for the second straight season, Hawai’i and Cal Poly were picked to finish second and third respectively.

The Mustangs will visit Blue-Green rival UC Santa Barbara for a 2:00 PM game on Saturday in the Thunderdome.

Photos by Owen Main. To purchase photos or view on an iPhone or iPad, click here.

Ariana Elegado didn’t score in the first half, but managed eight points in the game. By Owen Main

In a hotly-contested game that saw the lead change eight times in the second half, Pepperdine beat Cal Poly, 76-69. Down by as many as 15 in the first half, Cal Poly clawed-back and took the lead in the second half. The lead changed hands on seemingly every possession until Pepperdine found buckets down the stretch, made their free throws, and outlasted the Mustangs over the last five minutes or so.

Cal Poly is a young team that is probably going to be prone to some mistakes, especially early-on this year. For example, the team committed 23 turnovers in Tuesday’s game.

But Cal Poly is going to need newcomers Lisa Marie Sanchez, Dynn Leaupepe, and Lynn Leaupepe to play big roles all season alongside sophomore Hannah Gilbert and so they’ll all have to be patient while everyone finds their comfort level for this season.

What I liked

There were lots of bright spots and things to really like if you’re a Cal Poly fan. First of all, the Leaupepe twins are everything they were cracked up to be. They are aggressive, savvy players that do not always look like freshmen. Dynn, who started the game, finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Her sister, Lynn, came off the bench to score 7 points and pull down 8 rebounds.

Sarah Lipton was another bright spot off the bench. She scored five points in the first half and played good defense at the 4 in the second half. Like Gilbert and the newcomers, Lipton is working to find her role. It may take some time, but the minutes off the bench on Tuesday were mostly quality ones from the sophomore.

Gilbert is another sophomore who continues to show promise. While she and the rest of her teammates missed their fair share of inside shots in the game, Gilbert is able to easily sky over other players for rebounds. She’ll get better as the season goes on at picking her spots on the offensive end. She’s a player who should shoot above 50 percent from the floor. As the season wears on, she’ll work her way into being more comfortable with starting minutes.

Kristin Ale is showing this year that she is a lot more than just a spot-up shooter. By Owen Main

What they’re still working on

Dynn and Lynn are both capable of putting the ball on the ground and finishing around the hoop in one-on-one situations. There were at least three such plays in this game that kept the Mustangs close. Unfortunately, once they do that once or twice, help comes quickly at this level. Both players are still figuring out how and when to curb their drives. Cal Poly has open three-point specialists like Kristin Ale, Elegado, and Beth Balbierz. As the season goes on, look for all the wing players on the team to drive with their head up a little more and find their open teammates.

Another silver lining from Tuesday’s game is that Elegado had zero points in the first half and Cal Poly was still able to cut into Pepperdine’s big lead. While Elegado didn’t score a ton, she did push the tempo. The senior managed eight points in the second half, but getting her on the board should always be an early indicator for how the Mustangs will play.

Tempo

In case you didn’t notice, Cal Poly pushes the tempo. Hard. They took 79 shots in the game, but only made 35 percent of them. As the season progresses, look for percentages to go up some. That being said, the Cal Poly women’s style is much different than the men. They can live with 15 turnovers if they’re generally pushing the tempo and getting shots they want.

On Tuesday, Pepperdine took far fewer shots, but got to the free throw line 34 times compared to Cal Poly’s 13. That’s a big discrepancy, especially for a home team who was taking the ball to the basket a lot.

Richardson has a night

Guard Bria Richardson scored 29 points for Pepperdine. She shot the ball 24 times to get there and shot 6-8 from the free throw line. Her mid-range and slashing game was really really good. She has the kind of quickness that is rare at this level of college basketball. Add to that her length — just enough to get good shots over other guards — and you have a recipe for a player who will put up a lot of points this season if she wants.

ShareSLO Tournament

Cal Poly will host the Cal Poly/ShareSLO Holiday Tournament Friday and Saturday at Mott Athletics Center. They will play Ivy League team Dartmouth on Friday, followed by Texas A&M, Corpus Christi on Saturday. Both games are at 5:00 PM and admission is free.

Over the past six years, Faith Mimnaugh has had the best run of her nearly 20 years as Cal Poly’s head coach. By Owen Main

It’s safe to say Faith Mimnaugh and Cal Poly women’s basketball have had a good run over the past six years. With players like Kristina Santiago, Rachel Clancy, Molly Schlemer, Jonae Ervin, and Arianna Elegado, the Mustangs have had six straight winning seasons. Those years included four straight Big West Conference Players of the year, three conference championships, one Big West Tournament championship, three trips to the WNIT, and the program’s first birth into the NCAA Tournament.

This offseason, the Mustangs lost Schlemer, but got some positive news when the already-graduated Elegado announced she’d return for her final season of eligibility as a Mustang.

In this podcast, Mimnaugh discusses her reaction when she found out in August that Elegado was coming back. We also discussed the makeup of the team, renovations to Mott Athletic Center, and what style of play we might see out of the Mustangs this season.

Molly Schlemer’s offensive game demands attention from opposing defenses. By Owen Main

One was a face-up big. The other loves to have her back to the basket.

One was a superstar from the beginning. The other took half her college career to blossom into a dominant force.

Their styles probably couldn’t be more different, but a pair of Righetti High School forwards have, over the course of the past six years, helped lead the Cal Poly women’s basketball program from a team that was perennially in the bottom half of the conference bracket into a four to five-year run of conference dominance.

The numbers bear it out. In the seven years leading up to Santiago’s freshman year (2000-01 year through 2006-07), Cal Poly had winning percentages of .445 (49-61) in conference and .438 (85-109) overall. In the six years since Santiago arrived, winning percentages have increased for the Mustangs to .684 (67-31) in Big West Conference play and .580 (109-79) overall. They have not won less than 11 games in conference since Santiago’s Freshman year.

It isn’t like these two have done it completely on their own. Building a winning atmosphere requires contributions from everyone from the assistant coaches to the last player off the bench.

Kristina Santiago enjoyed an MVP season in the Bulgarian League last year and is back in Ruse. Photo courtesy of Dunav 8806.

The year Santiago missed due to injury saw Rachel Clancy win Big West Player of the Year. Cal Poly players have won that award four straight years. Schlemer, the defending conference player of the year, has better numbers this year than last year. She has upped her activity rebounding and demands constant attention from opposing defenses as the conferences most dominant offensive player. Barring something completely unforseen or a collapse on the part of the team, Schlemer will raise that number to five this season.

There have been others. Point guard Jonae Ervin has led the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio. Ariana Elegado is a constant outside threat who can create her own shot off the dribble — a valuable attribute at this level. Clancy, Kayla Griffin, and so many others have contributed to what has become a run of women’s basketball dominance that the Big West Conference hasn’t seen for some time.

Schlemer’s induction into the 1,000 point club is made even more remarkable by the fact that she averaged only nine minutes and 3.3 points per game during her first two seasons with Cal Poly.

Here’s a look at a few numbers from both Santiago and Schlemer:

* As of February 12, 2014

The two Righetti High School graduates have helped make the local school a perennial conference power. While coach Faith Mimnaugh loves great guard play, two post players with very different styles have helped the Mustangs establish a winning tradition at Mott Athletics Center.

If this March turns out the way San Luis Obispo fans hope, Schlemer could leave Cal Poly having won the program’s fifth consecutive Big West Conference Player of the Year award. Oh, and there’s also the matter of getting back to the NCAA Tournament.

*********

Post update – I just got back from the Cal Poly game against Cal State Northridge on Thursday night. That Matadors team looked REALLY good. They ran the Mustangs out of the gym. Like a buzz-saw. In a conference tournament it’s all about matchups and it looks like these two might be a good bet to meet in the conference final in March.

Photos by Owen Main

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