Cal Poly Women’s Basketball fell to UC Santa Barbara 63-60 on Thursday, but Annika Shah’s 12-point fourth quarter kept the game close in the final minutes.
The Mustangs (11-16, 6-11 Big West) fought in another gritty matchup against the Gauchos (17-11, 11-7 Big West) in the latest installment of the Blue-Green rivalry, but ultimately lost the game in the final minute due to a mishandled offense.
Currently, the Mustangs hold the eighth seed in the Big West over Cal State Fullerton. The Titans are just one game behind and hold the tiebreaker over the Mustangs.
The top eight teams in the Big West make the postseason tournament, the winner earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Cal State Fullerton lost 62-34 to UC Irvine, keeping Cal Poly in position to go to the Big West Tournament for now.
Highlighted by senior guard Annika Shah’s 12 points in the fourth quarter, Mustangs stayed neck and neck with the Gauchos, but it was not enough to put the Mustangs on top. She ended the game leading the team with 18 points, going 5-6 from three-point range.
After hitting a four-point play and another pair of clutch threes, she waved the crowd to their feet in the rivalry matchup.
“I just wanted to bring some energy to my team, into the crowd, because we needed them tonight, and they were amazing,” Shah said. “There was for sure some Mott magic.”
The Mustangs performed well on the defensive side of the ball, holding the Gauchos to 63 points, but three-pointers kept the Gaucho offense alive throughout the game.
Despite not having a lot of size, the Mustang defense has been a strength this year. Cal Poly ranks fourth in the Big West in steals and third in forced turnovers.
Especially in this game, Mustangs showed their relentlessness against Santa Barbara, something Shah “hasn’t seen in a while.”
“You can really see the fight, the energy and the grit that we have, and if we really lock in to things that we need to do to execute a game plan, we can be a really hard team to beat,” Shah said.
Cal Poly forces a lot of turnovers, but also has the second-highest average turnovers-per-game in the conference.
The Mustang offense collected 16 turnovers against UC Santa Barbara, which is under their season average of 19.1, but mishandling the ball late in the fourth quarter led to the Mustang’s defeat.
Cal Poly previously beat UC Santa Barbara in their road matchup in January, with graduate guard Ashley Hiraki making a game-winning layup for the Mustang win.
This time around, however, a final-minute collapse on offense cost them the game.
With just over a minute remaining, a Cal Poly turnover led to a Santa Barbara go-ahead three-pointer on the fast-break, putting the Mustangs down two. The Gauchos finished with 14 fast-break points, the Mustangs garnering just four.
Santa Barbara led by three with 23 seconds left in the game when the Mustangs took the ball on the Gaucho’s side of the court.
With still 20 seconds to go, sophomore forward Mary Carter air-balled a rushed three pointer from the top of the key, resulting in the Gauchos ball.
Cal Poly still had hope when Shah hit one final three-pointer with four seconds left. But with 3.5 seconds and a three-point deficit, the Gauchos were able to defend the Mustangs’ set play.
Turnovers have been the “kryptonite” of Cal Poly Women’s basketball, according to Shah. They have three games left this season to fix offensive mistakes before the postseason.
The team will be on the road at Cal State Bakersfield (2-26, 2-16 Big West) this Saturday at 2 p.m. to try and bounce back from Thursday’s loss.
“We have to continue getting in the film room together, not just by ourselves, and figuring out and talking through things that we can do,” Shah said.
