“Let’s go!”
The yell bellowed by redshirt sophomore guard Ariana Elegado was barely heard in the Mott Athletics Center. The crowd was on its feet, going wild. It was Elegado’s 3-pointer with 1:54 left in the game that gave the Cal Poly women’s basketball team (16-9, 10-4 Big West) the boost they needed to take down Hawaii (14-12, 10-5 Big West) 47-43 on Saturday.
“I got chills,” Elegado said. “I feel like after I made that shot, that was the time that we came together. We knew that we had it. Our energy toward the end when we got the momentum just made the crowd go wild. Everyone knew that we had it.”
The Mustangs began the game with a run catalyzed by junior center Molly Schlemer. After she scored within the first few seconds of the game, Schlemer proceeded to notch four more points before the Rainbow Wahine got on the board.
The Mustangs maintained a 10-point cushion throughout most of the first and, going into halftime, the score was 28-15. But after the break, the Rainbow Wahine began to inch closer.
“Our lead was great defense and rebounding the basketball,” head coach Faith Mimnaugh said. “I felt like (Shawna-Lei Kuehu) was going off a bit on us. She had some jump shots she was knocking down, and we gave up some offensive boards. It was all going to be about defense. If we could play good defense, then we had a chance to win the game; that’s really what it came down to in the end.”
An assist by Hawaii’s Kamilah Martin set up a jump shot by Kuehu with four minutes to play put Hawaii up 41-40. But Elegado and her teammates knew what needed to be done to win.
“We just stuck together,” Elegado said. “We brought it in and kept our composure. We knew we had it all along, but when they came back, we came together as a team and had to get our energy and momentum back up.”
With 2:29 to go, a pair of free throws by Hawaii’s center Stephanie Ricketts gave her team a 43-42 advantage over Cal Poly. But Elegado’s 3-point response and a layup made by Schlemer with eight seconds left were the deciding factor as the Mustangs gained sole possession of second place in the Big West Conference.
Schlemer ended the night with team-high 20 points, 12 rebounds and her fifth double-double of the season. Elegado scored 12 points and made two 3-pointers to contribute to the Mustangs’ victory. Junior guard Jonae Ervin, who entered Saturday’s matchup leading the nation in her assist-to-turnover ratio, added six points, two assists and four turnovers.
“If somebody isn’t on their game, someone else is going to have to step up,” Ervin said. “We’re really good about doing that. I had a horrible game, but (Elegado) stepped up, and Molly’s been our most consistent player this year. We can read each other really well and step up and see who’s not having a good game.”
For Hawaii, Martin scored a team-high 11 points with ten rebounds, and Kuehu notched ten points.
Pacific (21-6, 11-4 Big West), with their victory over UC Riverside, remains in first place in conference by a half-game over the Mustangs while the Rainbow Wahine dropped to third.
Cal Poly’s will face UC Riverside (11-14, 4-10 Big West) on the road at 4 p.m. on Thursday.