With the shot clock running down to zero minutes in Mott Athletics Center, Cal Poly Women’s Basketball saw another game slip away without a win, bringing their losing streak to 14 games.
On Saturday afternoon, UC San Diego defeated Cal Poly by a 24-point deficit of 85-61. This was the Mustangs biggest defeat since Feb. 12 where they lost to UC Irvine by 45 points.
Despite the Mustangs having an uptick in field goal percentage of 45.6% from their season average of 37.6%, it was not enough to break through the Triton’s strong defense.
“We score a lot in the paint, and they were tripling Charish, Dulci and Nora so that was a really big challenge for us because we were really looking to get mismatches and switches, but they were sitting and clogging the paint,” redshirt sophomore guard Alana Goosby said.
By the end of the game, the Tritons had totaled 27 defensive rebounds, 11 steals and three blocks, effectively hindering the Mustangs offensive production.
While Cal Poly notched two more defensive rebounds than UCSD and matched their blocks, they only had four steals and gave up 20 turnovers compared to UCSD’s six.
“We weren’t really able to shift our defense quick enough to contain,” freshman forward Dulci Vail said.
Breaking a season trend of freshman forward Charish Thompson or sophomore guard Vanessa McManus being the game’s lead scorer, Vail led the stat sheets being only one of two players to reach double digits in scoring as she tallied 14 points. She was followed closely by sophomore forward Nora Perez, who scored 12.
“Today it was just having a next play mentality because there were times, we’d have the ball turned over and we didn’t get a stop and you just kind of need a reset after that,” Vail said.
Goosby was key in setting up Vail’s success, as the sophomore finished with seven rebounds and six assists to lead the team.
Goosby currently leads the team in assists and is seventh in the Big West with 82 total, ensuring she sets her teammates up for success when it comes to offensive production.
“Looking for my teammates, trying to set them up and get them good shots because I know if they’re scoring and I can help assist them, then we’re going to get a run and we’re going to be able to come back and score on teams,” Goosby said.
With only two games left, the Mustangs are out of contention for the Big West Championship as they currently sit in the No. 11 spot of the Big West Conference, and only eight teams make it to the tournament.
Despite missing out on the playoffs this year, Goosby and Mustangs are still looking to get back in the win column.
“We have nothing to lose so it’s kind of just going and attacking and playing as hard as we can,” Goosby said.
The Mustangs will take on Big West Conference leader UC Irvine in their final home game of the season on Thursday, March 5 at 6 p.m. in Mott Athletics Center.