Junior guard Annika Shah crossed the ball over from left to right on a fast break. With four defenders surrounding her, the 5 foot 3 guard drove into a forest of bodies. Before she came to a complete stop, Shah jumped into the air looking for a teammate to dish it off to.
But then came senior center Natalia Ackerman streaking down the lane. As Shah pirouetted in the air, she dumped the ball off to Ackerman for a layup over two defenders.
Shah’s dime to Ackerman was one of her 10 assists on the night. According to Cal Poly Athletics, her mark of 10 assists is the highest mark in a single game by a Mustang since 2014.
“It’s good to see when I facilitate, it opens up a lot of things,” Shah said. “It’s something that the coaches have been pushing on me from the jump.”
Shah glanced up at Ackerman. “And of course, I have the best big in the league who catches all my crazy passes and finishes them.”
The Mustangs (14-10, 10-5 Big West) came out on top against Cal State Fullerton (8-17, 4-11 Big West) in a 58-47 win on Thursday, Feb. 22.
Ackerman finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds, her eighth double-double of the season.
“It’s awesome,” Ackerman said about her performance. “I’m really blessed. I think having big time facilitating from Annika tonight was amazing. It’s a huge part of my success.”
Shah added her own first-ever career double-double with 12 points and 10 assists. Shah added that this was her only double-double at any level.
Head coach Shanele Stires called Shah the most “skilled player in the Big West.”
“This is kind of the conundrum,” Stires said. “We need her to score the ball, but we need somebody else to facilitate and set her up. But she’s also done a great ob find the balance between facilitation and scoring. It’s a tough thing to do, but it just speaks to her intelligence.”
Shah and Ackerman average 12.8 and 12.1 points per game, respectively, which are first and second on the team in scoring. Ackerman leads the team in rebounds with 8.3 per game, while Shah is in the top three in assists.
The two played together at Cal Poly before Stires arrived. The inside-outside duo has been crucial to the team’s success on both ends of the court.
“When you have great perimeter play like Annika and you have somebody in the middle in Natalia, who can finish some of the tough buckets and come up with timely rebounds and great shot blocking, it’s really nice to see it all come together,” Stires said.
The Mustangs are currently slated third in the conference behind UC Irvine and Hawaii. Right behind them are UC Santa Barbara and UC Riverside, with one less loss in fourth place.
The Mustangs were originally selected to finish eighth in the conference in the Big West Preseason Poll Stires’ second season, but the team has exceeded expectations.
Stires missed the previous last two matchups due to undisclosed reasons. In her absence, the team mounted a 21-point deficit to overcome Long Beach State. However, the team fell on the road in their next game to Hawaii.
“It was tough being gone, but I’m really happy to be back,” Stires said. “Obviously, the team’s been awesome. I’m really proud of our coaching staff that they did a great job.”
The Mustangs have tended to start the game off slow, but the team built a 30-23 halftime lead against the Titans. In the third quarter, the team increased their lead to 12 points.
A late push by the Titans got the game to nine points, but junior guard Sidney Richards hit a midrange pull-up jumper. Shah added a bucket of her own to extend the lead back to 13 with a minute remaining.
However, turnover problems still hang over the Mustangs’ head. The team committed 23 turnovers.
Opponents recognize a recipe for success against the Mustangs: apply full-court pressure and force the Mustangs to speed up and turn the ball over. The Titans ran a full-court zone press and trapped the ball near halfcourt.
“I feel like we’ve really improved, but unfortunately we’ve not gotten over the hump of taking care of the ball the way we need to,” Stires said. “If we do that, we’re going to be really dangerous.”
The Mustangs are a strong half-court offensive team. They thrive in slower-paced settings where they can run set offenses and have players in positions to grab offensive rebounds and score off putbacks.
According to Synergy Sports, the Mustangs rank in the 89th percentile among Division I schools for scoring off putbacks and 91st in scoring on off-ball screens. But in order to reach their ceiling, the Mustangs will need to solve their ball security problems.
The Mustangs will look to solve their turnover problems against UC Riverside, who Stires called one of the best ball pressure teams in the Big West. The Mustangs will travel to Riverside for a 6 p.m. matchup on Saturday, Feb. 24.
