Despite senior point guard Annika Shah’s 20 points, Cal Poly Women’s Basketball fell short to Cal State Fullerton Women’s Basketball on Thursday, Feb. 13, 67-64, at Mott Athletics Center.
Before the game began, Shah was recognized in a ceremony for achieving 1,000 game points while playing for the Mustangs. She is the 16th Cal Poly women’s basketball player in history to achieve this status.
With the loss, the Mustangs (10-13, 5-8 Big West) extended their losing streak to three straight, even after defeating the Titans (6-18, 4-10 Big West) in their last three contests. They started strong, leading for the entirety of the first quarter.
Turnovers continue to pose a challenge for the Mustangs and lead to losing points. In this game, Fullerton gained a total of 20 points off turnovers. Shah attributes the high number of turnovers to over-dribbling.
“We continuously have turnovers when teams aren’t even pressing us, and that’s a big issue,” Shah said. “I think the biggest thing is that we’re over dribbling. I had turnovers, because I’m over dribbling in situations where I just need to give the ball up,”
Cal Poly fell short to the Titans in the last five minutes of the second quarter, during which they scored only seven points. By halftime, the score was 37-26, with Fullerton in the lead.
In that second quarter, Cal State Fullerton went on a 19-2 run over eight minutes.
The loss in lead was mainly attributed to “scoring droughts,” according to Shah.
“People are trying to make plays, and that’s not when we play our best basketball,” she said. “So we got to just keep talking about it, watching film and having that talk on the floor, like we got to move the ball and play together.”
In the third quarter, the Mustangs worked to catch up to the Titans but continued to trail behind.
Cal Poly managed to close the gap several times in the fourth quarter, with a 52-52 tie at nine minutes remaining and a 55-55 tie at eight minutes.
However, they never gained their early lead back. Despite some close three-pointer attempts from the Mustangs in the final minutes, the Titans ultimately came out on top.
Keeping their heads up high, Shah looks to boost playing consistency among the Mustangs by reviewing their film, keeping in continuous communication, and approaching future games with confidence.
“We have to keep believing, because we do have a shot at this, and we’ve shown that in certain games we can play our best basketball, and we have to learn how to be consistent with that,” Shah said.
The Mustangs return to Mott Athletics Center to face off against Cal State University, Northridge, on Saturday, Feb. 15 at 2 p.m.
