Cal Poly Women’s Basketball continued their challenging season on Thursday night in the Rainbow State with an 86-46 loss against University of Hawai’i. The loss gave the Rainbow Wahine their first conference win of the season after starting 0-5.
The Mustangs (3-14, 1-6 Big West) have fallen in three straight games with only three victories under their belt as they near the midway point in the season. With this loss, Cal Poly sits at No. 10 in the Big West Standings with just one conference win.
The Mustangs secured the first two points of the game, but that was the only time they held the lead. From that point on, the Mustangs struggled to find their rhythm, trailing by 22 points at the end of the first quarter. The Rainbow Wahine’s offense pummeled Cal Poly’s defense as they had their highest field goal percentage of the night at 68.8% for the quarter.
Despite the Mustangs going 8-11 in field goals and 2-3 in three-pointers in the third quarter, they could not put a dent in the deficit. Throughout the game, the Rainbow Wahine capitalized on the Mustangs’ mistakes as they scored 23 points off Cal Poly’s 20 turnovers.
Despite the loss, sophomore guard Vanessa McManus continued her breakout season, being the only player to reach double digits in scoring. She accounted for almost half of the Mustang’s points, finishing with 22 total and grabbed four rebounds in 34 minutes.
McManus has led the team throughout the season averaging 19.2 points per game, and currently holds the No. 3 spot for points per game in the Big West.
Following behind McManus was freshman forward Charish Thompson who typically averages 14.1 points per game but came up short with eight points on Thursday. Thompson also secured five rebounds, matching sophomore forward Nora Perez to lead the team.
The Mustangs look to snap their losing streak against UC Santa Barbara on Thursday, Jan. 22 at 7 p.m. in Mott Athletics Center.