Cal Poly women’s basketball lost their fifth straight game against UC Berkeley by a score of 89-73 on Saturday, Dec. 18th inside Haas Pavilion.
The Mustangs (1-7) jumped out to an early 6-0 lead over the Golden Bears (8-2), but that would be the largest of the game for them.
Berkeley caught back up and built separation at the end of the first quarter. They put together three consecutive stops and scored three straight baskets to wrap up the first quarter with a 22-14 lead.
Cal Poly made the first two baskets of the second quarter as sophomore guard Junie Dickson hit a three-pointer and freshman guard Sarah Dumitrescu hit a jump shot. Then both teams went on a two-minute scoring drought until Dalayah Daniels of UC Berkeley scored to give them a 27-19 advantage.
From there, the Golden Bears took control of the game. They outscored Cal Poly 19-10 and built up a double-digit lead that stretched out to 19 points by the end of the second.
The third quarter was more of the same, as Cal Poly hit the first two shots of the quarter, but were unable to build on it. By the end of the quarter, Berkeley had increased the deficit to 26.
Cal Poly whittled away at the lead in the fourth quarter. They were able to shrink the lead to 16 points by the end of the game, but Berkeley ultimately came out on top.
Senior forward Hannah Scanlan finished with 15 points and five rebounds for the Mustangs. Meanwhile, freshman shooting guard Sydney Bourland and junior forward Julia Nielacna provided 14 points apiece.
Cal Poly outscored Berkeley in the paint 42-28, but Berkeley’s ability to generate and make three pointers proved to be the difference. The Golden Bears converted 56% of their 18 three-point attempts while Cal Poly shot just 25% on 12 attempts.
The Mustangs will look to snap their five-game losing streak when they take on Cal Baptist at Mott Athletic Center on Tuesday, Dec. 21st at 1 p.m.
