Cal Poly Women’s Basketball opened the season in a dominant fashion, routing Division II UC Merced 72-40 on Wednesday night at Mott Athletics Center.
The Mustangs (1-0) paint dominance on both sides of the ball had been the name of the game against the Bobcats (0-1).
Cal Poly recorded an impressive 26-point performance within the first quarter and scored all but three points within the paint en route to a 44-point scoring performance in the evening.
Sophomore guard Mary Carter played an especially critical role within the paint, recording eight of her 13 points in the key.
“I think focusing on the backboard and really focusing on that layup were important against them tonight,” Carter said. “I just got a lot of really good passes right where I needed them to be.”
In addition, rebounds were crucial to Cal Poly’s victory, as the Mustangs recorded 52 total boards to UC Merced’s 34. The Mustangs recorded 18 offensive rebounds, leading to 18 second-chance points.
Defense for the Mustangs had also been pivotal in the blowout win.
The Mustangs’ interior defense held especially firm throughout the game. Forcing the Bobcats to attempt to score with rushed shots from the midrange or beyond the arc as the shot clock ticked to zero.
Forcing the uncomfortable shots helped the Mustangs hold the Bobcats to just 25 percent field goal shooting on the evening and 15 percent from beyond the arc.
Cal Poly also limited UC Merced to less than 15 points per quarter and even kept the Bobcats to just five points in the third quarter.
Moreover, the Mustangs’ defense pressured the Bobcats into 22 turnovers and capitalized on the opportunities, scoring 31 points off of the forced turnovers.
The Mustangs stepped on the gas early into the first quarter, taking a commanding 13-2 lead over the Bobcats within the first four minutes of the game – a scoring run that would set the tone for the rest of the evening.
Following the early run, the Mustangs would continue to increase their lead, ending the first half with a 44-24 lead over the Bobcats.
Senior point guard Annika Shah, the team’s leading scorer of the night, notched 14 points, recording all but two points from beyond the arc, all within the first half.
Two other players aside from Carter and Shah would score double figures en route to the win.
Redshirt sophomore forward Sierra Lichtie scored 10 points and recorded 11 rebounds to notch her first double-double performance of the season. Freshman forward Gillian Bears would also contribute 10 points.
Cal Poly opened the second half in a similar fashion to the first quarter, recording a 9-2 run within the first five minutes of the third quarter, which set the tone for the remainder of the second half.
“The first five minutes of the first quarter, the first five minutes of the third quarter are the two biggest dictators for how the game’s going to go.,” Shah said. “We didn’t really have a great start in our exhibition game so we made an emphasis to do better on that tonight.”
The Mustangs are set to go on their first road trip of the season beginning Saturday, Nov. 9, when Cal Poly gears up to face No. 3-ranked USC, a team that advanced to the Elite 8 of the NCAA tournament a season ago led by star point guard JuJu Watkins.