Victor Joseph was really good last Thursday. By Owen Main

With their win over CSUN and the happenings in the Big West over the weekend, Cal Poly is now guaranteed a spot in the Big West Conference Tournament. Whether they’re a 7 or 8 seed is still to be determined, but we know some things already. 

Twice as nice

Having already played a triple-overtime game and an overtime game at Mott this season, the Mustangs bridged the gap and played a double overtime thriller against CSUN in their only game last week. Victor Joseph scored a career-high 36 points in the senior night win. 

Fellow senior Aleks Abrams grabbed 18 big rebounds for the Mustangs, who notched their fourth conference win of the season. 

The game looked like it was Cal Poly’s to take until CSUN forced some turnovers in the second half and got themselves a four-point lead late in the game. But three pointers by Joseph and some clutch play down the stretch allowed Cal Poly to emerge victorious.

Cal Poly isn’t likely to play late on Thursday

Thursday is SO much fun at the Big West Tournament. Four games in a row at the Honda Center. Usually the late games feature local teams, so if Cal Poly earns the 7 or 8 seed and plays UC Davis or even UCSB, they’re likely to play in the noon game. If they play UC Irvine, the Mustangs could play in game 2 or 3 — probably not the late game. 

Lucky number 7?

The last four seasons, Cal Poly has finished in 7th place in the regular season. The first of those years, the Mustangs went 6-10 in Big West play and ran through the tournament en route to an NCAA Tournament bid. In fact, three of the past four seasons have seen the Mustangs notch a 6-10 Big West record. The outlier, 2015-16, saw Cal Poly earn their 7-seed with a 4-12 record. If they beat UC Riverside on Thursday, Cal Poly will be assured the seventh seed for the fifth season in a row. 

What’s next?

I’m probably getting ahead of myself with the conference tournament talk, but Cal Poly plays two games this week. The first game will be at UC Riverside on Thursday night at 7pm. After their coach was fired and their best player was suspended to start conference play, the Highlanders have tried to right the ship. Dikymbe Martin, one of the best guards in the conference, is back and the Highlanders have gone 3-3 over their last six games and hope to secure their own Big West Tournament spot with a win. 

After the Riverside game, Cal Poly will finish their conference regular season like they started it — against rival UCSB. This time, the game will be in Goleta and you know the Gauchos will be looking for blood after the Mustangs knocked them off at home in the conference opener in SLO. Game time Saturday night is also 7:00pm on UCSB’s senior night. 

Joseph earns Athlete of the Week

For his senior night exploits, Victor Joseph earned Big West Athlete of the Week last week. It’s more difficult to win that award when you only play one game in the week, but 36 points is a strong statement. 

Women heating up

Cal Poly women’s team is also heating up. Faith Mimnaugh’s squad has been squarely in the second tier of the Big West this year (UC Davis is on a tier of their own at 13-1 in Big West play). Going into the final week of Big West play, Cal Poly has a 1/2 game lead over UC Irvine and UCSB for second place. Cal Poly has just one game in their final week and it’s a tough one — Saturday night at Hawai’i. 

In the women’s bracket, the seedings matter quite a lot. The top two teams receive byes into the semi-finals of the tournament, while the third and fourth seeds (of nine) receive a bye into the quarterfinals. Winning their final game and finding a way to get into second place means that Cal Poly wouldn’t play a tournament game until Friday in the semi-finals in the Honda Center. 

If Irvine beats CSUN this week and win out, I think they’d have the inside track in a tiebreaker over UCSB and Cal Poly for second place. If they lose to CSUN, then Cal Poly and UCSB might be up for a tiebreaker. It’d be a messy tiebreaker. Let’s see how the early part of this week goes before we jump to conclusions. 

At any rate, the women’s hoops seniors are coming down the home stretch of their careers. Dynn and Lynn are going to go down in the Cal Poly record books when it’s all said and done and when this team is rolling, they have a legitimate shot against anyone in the Big West. 

Lynn’s AOTW

Lynn Leaupepe joined Victor Joseph on the men’s side to sweep the Big West’s Athlete of the Week awards in basketball. Her games of 16/14 and 18/14 helped Cal Poly into second place in the standings going into the final week. After being injured early in conference play, it seems Lynn has rounded back into form. That has to be a scary sight for Big West opponents. 

Photos by Owen Main

For more photos click here. If you just want to contribute to the cause, Venmo @Owen-Main or paypal owen@fansmanship.com. 

The Cal Poly women’s basketball team opened the ShareSLO Holiday Beach Classic with a dud on Friday. Unable to get mid-range shots to fall and unable to contain Robert Morris’ balanced offensive attack, the Mustangs fell to the Colonials 66-50.

It was the first game Robert Morris had ever played in California, but it was the Mustangs who looked lost, shooting just 31 percent from the floor and turning the ball over 21 times. 

Lynn Leaupepe set the first half pace on Sunday afternoon against San Francisco. By Owen Main

After a day off on Saturday, Cal Poly faced San Francisco on Sunday and turned things around. After being held scoreless on Friday, Dynn Leaupepe scored 27 points and grabbed nine rebounds to go along with three steals in the win. Lynn Leaupepe, who led the team with 14 points in the first half, totaled 20 for the game to go along with six boards and a pair of steals. She was 10-10 from the free throw line. 

Starting at point guard for the injured Dye Stahley, Ayzhiana Basallo — a freshman from St. Ignatius in San Francisco — scored 16 points in 32 minutes while turning the ball over just twice. Basallo notched a team-high four assists against her hometown club.

With the win, Cal Poly ensured all three teams in the ShareSLO Holiday Beach Classic went 1-1 over the weekend. The Mustangs’ record improved to 2-3 on the young season. This week, they host Division II Cal State Monterey Bay on Tuesday night at 5:00 pm in Mott Athletic Center. 

Photos below by Owen Main. 

To see more photos or to purchase photos, click here. If you just want to contribute to the cause, Venmo @Owen-Main or paypal owen@fansmanship.com.  

Ariana Elegado didn’t score in the first half, but managed eight points in the game. By Owen Main

In a hotly-contested game that saw the lead change eight times in the second half, Pepperdine beat Cal Poly, 76-69. Down by as many as 15 in the first half, Cal Poly clawed-back and took the lead in the second half. The lead changed hands on seemingly every possession until Pepperdine found buckets down the stretch, made their free throws, and outlasted the Mustangs over the last five minutes or so.

Cal Poly is a young team that is probably going to be prone to some mistakes, especially early-on this year. For example, the team committed 23 turnovers in Tuesday’s game.

But Cal Poly is going to need newcomers Lisa Marie Sanchez, Dynn Leaupepe, and Lynn Leaupepe to play big roles all season alongside sophomore Hannah Gilbert and so they’ll all have to be patient while everyone finds their comfort level for this season.

What I liked

There were lots of bright spots and things to really like if you’re a Cal Poly fan. First of all, the Leaupepe twins are everything they were cracked up to be. They are aggressive, savvy players that do not always look like freshmen. Dynn, who started the game, finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Her sister, Lynn, came off the bench to score 7 points and pull down 8 rebounds.

Sarah Lipton was another bright spot off the bench. She scored five points in the first half and played good defense at the 4 in the second half. Like Gilbert and the newcomers, Lipton is working to find her role. It may take some time, but the minutes off the bench on Tuesday were mostly quality ones from the sophomore.

Gilbert is another sophomore who continues to show promise. While she and the rest of her teammates missed their fair share of inside shots in the game, Gilbert is able to easily sky over other players for rebounds. She’ll get better as the season goes on at picking her spots on the offensive end. She’s a player who should shoot above 50 percent from the floor. As the season wears on, she’ll work her way into being more comfortable with starting minutes.

Kristin Ale is showing this year that she is a lot more than just a spot-up shooter. By Owen Main

What they’re still working on

Dynn and Lynn are both capable of putting the ball on the ground and finishing around the hoop in one-on-one situations. There were at least three such plays in this game that kept the Mustangs close. Unfortunately, once they do that once or twice, help comes quickly at this level. Both players are still figuring out how and when to curb their drives. Cal Poly has open three-point specialists like Kristin Ale, Elegado, and Beth Balbierz. As the season goes on, look for all the wing players on the team to drive with their head up a little more and find their open teammates.

Another silver lining from Tuesday’s game is that Elegado had zero points in the first half and Cal Poly was still able to cut into Pepperdine’s big lead. While Elegado didn’t score a ton, she did push the tempo. The senior managed eight points in the second half, but getting her on the board should always be an early indicator for how the Mustangs will play.

Tempo

In case you didn’t notice, Cal Poly pushes the tempo. Hard. They took 79 shots in the game, but only made 35 percent of them. As the season progresses, look for percentages to go up some. That being said, the Cal Poly women’s style is much different than the men. They can live with 15 turnovers if they’re generally pushing the tempo and getting shots they want.

On Tuesday, Pepperdine took far fewer shots, but got to the free throw line 34 times compared to Cal Poly’s 13. That’s a big discrepancy, especially for a home team who was taking the ball to the basket a lot.

Richardson has a night

Guard Bria Richardson scored 29 points for Pepperdine. She shot the ball 24 times to get there and shot 6-8 from the free throw line. Her mid-range and slashing game was really really good. She has the kind of quickness that is rare at this level of college basketball. Add to that her length — just enough to get good shots over other guards — and you have a recipe for a player who will put up a lot of points this season if she wants.

ShareSLO Tournament

Cal Poly will host the Cal Poly/ShareSLO Holiday Tournament Friday and Saturday at Mott Athletics Center. They will play Ivy League team Dartmouth on Friday, followed by Texas A&M, Corpus Christi on Saturday. Both games are at 5:00 PM and admission is free.