Cal Poly women’s basketball opened their season with an 84-48 loss to the UCLA Bruins on Monday, Nov. 7 inside Pauley Pavilion.
The Mustangs (0-1) turned the ball over 20 times against the Bruins (1-0), who turned those turnovers into 26 points.
Cal Poly held two leads in the game, one at 2-0 off a jumper by sophomore point guard Annika Shah and the second at 4-2 after a fast-break layup from junior forward Natalia Ackerman.
However, UCLA then ripped off a 19-2 run in the first quarter to take a 25-11 lead into the second quarter and they never looked back.
It was all Bruins from that point on. Although Cal Poly did not let UCLA gash the defense for large runs, the largest Bruin run outside of the first-quarter barrage was an 8-0 run in the second quarter. UCLA took a dominant 45-25 advantage into the halftime locker room.
The second half was more of the same, as the Mustangs could not find any traction and the lead slowly ballooned until the final buzzer sounded at 84-48 in favor of the Bruins.
Cal Poly had 27 points off the bench including senior forward Julia Nielacna, who chipped in 13 to lead the team. Sophomore shooting guard Sydney Bourland followed Nielacna with 11 as the only other Mustang with double-digit points.
The Mustangs shot a frigid 4-for-21 (19%) from beyond the arc and only managed to knock down 4-of-9 free throws while the Bruins shot 21-for-31 from the charity stripe.
Cal Poly will look to get into the win column against Simpson University on Thursday, Nov. 10 inside Mott Athletics Center at 11 a.m.