With five points off turnovers and a perfect free throw percentage, Cal Poly Women’s Basketball looked sharp in the first quarter of their Monday night matchup with UC Riverside.
Unfortunately for the young Mustangs, the momentum was short lived. UC Riverside took the lead in the second quarter and never looked back, continuing the Mustangs season-long trend of falling due to turnovers. The Mustangs have a -2.37% turnover margin and Monday night’s game was no different.
The Mustangs finished the night with 24 turnovers, falling to the Highlanders 63-46 and moving to 0-2 in Big West conference play.
Mustangs out of sync
Freshman forward Charish Thompson and sophomore guard Vanessa McManus have been the offensive backbone for the team all season long. On Monday night, they both performed well under their average, finishing with a combined 19 points.
Hours before the game, Thompson was announced as the fifth freshman in the nation in scoring, averaging 15.7 points a game in her first season as a Mustang. She struggled to find her rhythm against the Highlanders, only scoring 11 points and going four for 11 in field goals. Thompson was the only player on the Mustangs’ roster that entered double-digits in scoring on Monday.
Just three games ago, McManus had a career high game against Southern Utah, scoring 34 points and is averaging 20.9 on the season. With just eight points against UC Riverside, the Mustangs were unable to replace her typical output from other spots in the lineup.
On top of Cal Poly’s offense not gaining momentum, their defense was not its strongest either. Typically, the Mustangs average 8.25 steals a game, yet they only grabbed two on Monday night allowing UC Riverside to gain a 43.6% game field goal percentage.
While the Mustangs were able to slightly lessen the deficit to seven points near the end of the third quarter, it was not enough to defeat the Highlanders.
After their first two conference games, the Mustangs’ next four games consist of opponents outside of the Big West, including top schools such as UCLA and USC. Their next Big West matchup isn’t until Jan. 1, when they will take on UC San Diego in a New Year’s day face off.