Cal Poly edges UCSB to move out of last place
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -
Led by a 26-point effort by junior forward Sierra Campisano, the Cal Poly women's basketball team picked up a 56-52 Big West Conference win over UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday night, earning a Blue-Green Rivalry victory at Mott Athletics Center.
Campisano went 9-for-21 overall, including 1-for-3 from 3-point range, and added a 7-for-8 evening at the free-throw line while notching her 10th performance of the season with at least 20 points.
Cal Poly started out hot, sprinting to a 7-2 lead 2 minutes & 43 seconds from the opening tip, on the way to a 22-7 advantage late in the first quarter. The Mustangs shot 10-of-19 in the initial period, using a 14-2 points-in-the-paint margin to establish the early gap.
UCSB (7-7; tied for third place in the Big West) narrowed the deficit to 30-23 by halftime, as Ila Lane, the reigning Conference Player of the Week, netted 12 first-half points on 6-for-7 shooting to help the Gauchos recover (ultimately finishing with a team-high 19).
After starting the fourth quarter down 45-37, Santa Barbara scored 8 straight points to tie the game, but Campisano answered with a post move followed by a 3. UCSB fought right back with a 7-0 run, however, and moved in front 52-50 (the exact score of the first encounter between the two teams on Jan. 11 at The Thunderdome) when Tal Sahar drove for a layup with 2:20 remaining.
Cal Poly regained the lead for good, though, with 1:39 left in the game, when point guard Abbey Ellis sank a 3 to put the Mustangs ahead 53-52.
Both teams missed their next shots, before Kirsty Brown came up with a crucial block of a Coco Miller attempt and secured the rebound, giving the Mustangs possession with the one-point lead and 31 seconds on the clock.
With the Gauchos essentially forced to foul, Campisano proceeded to make back-to-back free throws making it 55-52 with 28 seconds left. Then on the ensuing UCSB inbound, junior guard Chantel Govan came up with a key steal.
After two Mustang missed free throws, the Gauchos had one last look at a potentially-tying 3, but Miller's attempt caromed out of bounds. Campisano then added one more free throw for the final score with five seconds to play, and with the four-point lead, the Mustangs made sure not to foul on the Gauchos' final trip up the court, which resulted in a miss from deep at the buzzer.
In addition to scoring eight points, junior shooting guard Hannah Peterson gathered a career-high 11 rebounds, helping Cal Poly win the battle of the boards 42-33 en route to a ninth consecutive win at home against the Gauchos.
Govan finished with four steals, a new career-high at the Division I level (as she previously had a pair of seven-steal games while playing for nationally-ranked two-year program South Plains College in Texas).
The Mustangs distributed 14 assists to the Gauchos' 12, moving to 8-4 on the season when finishing with more assists than the opponent.
In terms of percentage, the win puts the Mustangs (5-9) slightly ahead of UC Riverside (4-8) for eighth place in the league standings heading into Thursday's slate: .357 to .333. (Mathematically, both are 5.5 games back of conference leader UC Davis, with two regular-season games left for Cal Poly and four for UCR.) In the event of a tie between the two, the Mustangs would own the head-to-head tiebreaker, thanks to sweeping the Highlanders.
The top eight teams in the Big West standings will advance to the conference tournament, held between March 10-14 in Long Beach and Anaheim.
Article courtesy of Cal Poly Athletics.
