Jefferson P. Nolan
jnolan@mustangdaily.net
Molly Schlemer’s mother never misses a Cal Poly women’s basketball game at home.
And on Saturday afternoon in the Mott Athletics Center, she was courtside, clad in bright pink as the Mustangs (12-8, 6-3 Big West) put on a show in the “Play 4Kay” breast cancer awareness game and defeated UC Riverside (10-10, 3-6) 79-56.
Schlemer recalls her mother’s bout against cancer, and the junior center’s 18 points of the night were dedicated to her.
“She’s here every game, courtside,” Schlemer said. “I always see her while playing. Breast cancer has really been an obstacle, but luckily, we made it through. Just knowing that cancer tried to hurt my family, I just kind of used that as motivation going into the game and playing really hard for my mom.”
Previously entitled “Pink Day,” the “Play 4Kay” basketball game memorializes breast cancer survivor and legendary women’s basketball coach Kay Yow along with all women who have battled breast cancer.
Head coach Faith Mimnaugh worked with Yow as her assistant coach at North Carolina State. The annual game brings back memories for Mimnaugh, but she insists the message behind the matchup is what is important.
“It is about Kay, but it’s about our own survivors too,” Mimnaugh said. “Just on our team, we’ve got three mothers that have battled breast cancer. To see how they’ve inspired their daughters to be warriors, I think it is a testament to their determination and the Mustang fighting spirit. Love those ladies.”
And in their pink-striped socks and shoelaces, the Mustangs started the game off with a bang.
In the third minute, with the Mustangs leading 7-6, Cal Poly created a nine-point breakaway run, giving the team a 16-6 lead. Two minutes later, Cal Poly went on a 12-2 run to make the score 31-12 after junior Jonae Ervin sunk a jump shot with about nine minutes left in the half.
Ervin entered the matchup ranked seventh in the nation with an assist – to – turnover ratio of 2.64. She finished the game as the third Mustangs player to score in double figures against the Highlanders.
By the end of the first half, the Mustangs had made 50 percent of their shots compared to UC Riverside’s 28 percent. Sophomore guard Ariana Elegado had 12 points and made four of her six attempted 3-point shots.
“I think defensively we’ve been really solid,” Mimnaugh said. “We’ve had great team defense, and we’re putting more pressure on the ball all the time in all positions. (Previously) I felt that we had maybe four people invested in the game and one was fatigued or not totally invested. Now, we’re pretty much getting five people on the court all the time and collectively working together.”
By the time the final buzzer sounded, Elegado remained the team’s leading scorer with 19 points on the night.
“She has great vision,” Schlemer said of Elegado. “She has the ability to score and to dish to me when she’s not open. She has a lot of energy for us and for the team. We just need her to keep coming out for us like she has been the past few games and we’ll be good.”
Multiple drives from UC Riverside guard TreShont Nottingham kept the Highlanders in the game, as she scored a team-high 18 points and made 4 of her 8 attempted 3-pointers.
Senior forward Kayla Griffin also contributed to Cal Poly’s victory as she snagged 11 rebounds for the Mustangs, delivered three assists and made three steals.
“We’ve been focusing a lot on playing defense and applying pressure on defense,” Griffin said. “If there’s a really good player, we’ll try and focus around that and try and help everyone guard her.”
The Mustangs finished the game shooting a 49.2 percent from the field while making 78.6 percent of their free throws. And despite Nottingham’s individual performance, the Highlanders emerged with just a 37.3 field goal percentage.
Now with its second consecutive win under its belt, Cal Poly will look ahead to its next game against Pacific (18-3, 8-1 Big West) on Thursday at 7 p.m. The Mustangs are the only team in the Big West that have defeated the Tigers this season, but Mimnaugh knows what her team will be up against.
“We’ll like to package some of this and send it on the road with us,” Mimnaugh said. “We’re going up against a real tough Pacific team that shoots the ball and runs the ball as well as we do, if not even better. It’ll be a big challenge for us.”