Cal Poly women’s basketball lost in a heartbreaking double-overtime game against Long Beach State by a score of 65-64 on Saturday, Feb. 5 inside Mott Athletics Center.
The Mustangs (2-14, 1-6 Big West) led for the majority of the game, but a late push by the Beach (15-3, 8-2 Big West) propelled them to a victory.
The Mustangs battled hard, led by senior forward Hannah Scanlan’s second double-double of the season. To go along with Scanlan’s effort, both graduated forward Kirsty Brown and freshman guard Annika Shah scored their career high points with 18 and 11, respectively.
Both squads got off to slow starts, with the score at the end of one period tied up at 12-12.
In the second, the scoring picked up a bit and the Mustangs began to pull away. Fueled by a six-point run to cap off the half, Cal Poly went into the locker room with a 27-21 lead.
The third quarter was much more eventful in terms of offense, as the teams combined for 37 points in the period. After an 11-1 run in the quarter, the Mustangs took a 47-38 lead.
However, the game flipped on top of its head in the fourth.
After the Mustangs took a 50-38 lead to start the fourth quarter, they were held scoreless for the next six minutes as Beach cut their lead to just three at 50-47. After scores from each side on the next two possessions, Cal Poly was up 52-50. With only ten seconds remaining in regulation, Long Beach tied the score up 52-52 and sent the game to overtime.
The first overtime was relatively uneventful, as both squads were only able to muster four points each. Tied at 56 apiece, the game headed into double overtime.
In the second overtime, Brown made a layup with eight seconds left to put Cal Poly ahead 64-63. In Long Beach’s next possession, Kiana Hamiliton-Fisher made a second-chance layup following a block by Brown with only 0.4 seconds remaining, clinching the victory for Long Beach
Scanlan finished with 18 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Brown scored a career-high 18 points of her own to go with seven board while Shah finished with a career-high 11 points. Junior guards Maddie Vick and Maddie Willett played all 50 minutes of the matchup, which were career-highs.
Long Beach had four players score in the double-digits, led by senior forward Maddie Utti, who had 17 points and eight rebounds.
Cal Poly will next face off against CSU Northridge on Thursday, Feb. 10 at 5 p.m. inside the Matadome.
