Cal Poly Women’s Basketball dropped their second straight conference game against the University of Hawaii by a score of 50-47 on Saturday, Dec. 31 inside Mott Athletics Center.
The Mustangs (3-7, 0-2 Big West) couldn’t contain the Rainbow Wahine (4-7, 2-0 Big West) offense, as they were outscored in the third and fourth quarters after leading at halftime.
Cal Poly opened up the first quarter with an 8-0 run in the first four minutes but only scored two more points during the entire quarter. Despite this, they held a 10-9 advantage after one.
The Mustangs got off to another 8-0 run to start the quarter with the help of two three-pointers from graduate guard Nikola Kovacikova.
Cal Poly then added on two more three-pointers from junior guard Junie Dickson and began to distance themselves to end the quarter, making the score 23-14 at halftime.
It seemed like Cal Poly had all the momentum coming out of the half, but they struggled to get anything going on offense in the third quarter and gave Hawaii plenty of opportunities to the tune of eight fouls.
Nine of the 19 points Hawaii scored in the third quarter came from free throws, which cut the Mustang lead down to 36-33 heading into the final quarter.
Scoring went back and forth during the fourth quarter until Hawaii grabbed their first lead of the game with 4:30 left in the game. Cal Poly then retook the lead with 3:44 left, but Hawaii took it right back with 3:23 remaining and didn’t give up the lead for the rest of the game.
The Mustangs had multiple opportunities to tie the game or take the lead at the end of the game but came up just short, with the final score being 50-47.
Fouls hurt Cal Poly once again in the fourth quarter, as nine of Hawaii’s 17 points scored came from the charity stripe.
The difference maker for both teams in the game was points off turnovers, as Hawaii outscored Cal Poly 17-8 in that department.
The Mustangs will now look toward their first game of the new year as they continue conference play against CSU Bakersfield on Thursday, Jan. 5 at 6 p.m. inside the Mott Athletics Center.