Molly Schlemer led the Mustangs in scoring and rebounding in 2012-13 and helped the team earn its first NCAA tournament appearance. Photo by Ian Billings
J.J. Jenkins
sports@mustangdaily.net
For her entire career, Molly Schlemer was overshadowed by the same name.
Even as this season progressed and Schlemer emerged as one of the best in the conference, it was there. In post-game press conferences, in comparisons, in questions about whether the team could really make the big dance without that name: Kristina Santiago.
Now, after the Mustangs’ 63-49 victory over Pacific on Saturday, Schlemer has one thing Santiago, the program’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder, never did: an NCAA tournament berth.
“I have something up on her,” Schlemer said, laughing at the incredulity of it all. “Which is something that has never happened to me before, I’ve followed in her footsteps most of my career.”
This season, Schlemer, with no one to follow, led.
Confidence, is how she described the change. That key facet to her game was at zero percent when the Mustangs lost to UC Davis in the 2011 title bout, she said. In that game, Schlemer recorded a scoreless six minutes and watched Rachel Clancy end her Player of the Year campaign without a trophy.
“Watching UC Davis cut down the nets was terrible,” she said. “I’ve never been so disappointed about a game in my life.”
The next year, Schlemer watched Santiago’s career end abruptly in the 2012 Big West tournament when Long Beach State shocked the top-seeded Mustangs in the semifinals. But there was a silver lining. For the first time in her collegiate career, Schlemer wouldn’t be just a replacement off the bench for one of Cal Poly’s all-time greatest athletes, she would start in her place.
But that didn’t stop anyone from bringing the ghost of Santiago up at every opportunity.
The two forwards came out of Righetti High School in Santa Maria, Calif. and both picked Cal Poly, but that’s where the comparisons usually stopped.
Santiago was an athletic presence in the paint and a prolific scorer that immediately turned a perennially poor Mustangs squad into a winner. On the other hand, Schlemer shuffles awkwardly up the court, and, at at 6-foot-5, looks like she is still learning to harness the power of her frame. One was a highly touted recruit, the other watched other programs such as UC Santa Barbara lose interest during the recruiting process.
Even when she received a scholarship, she still had her battles to fight. The soft-spoken Schlemer averaged 2.8 points per game in her sophomore season and was little known around the conference. She was mostly used off the bench to give Santiago or other forwards a rest.
“The previous two years, she was a little bit of a liability on the court,” head coach Faith Mimnaugh said. “She really only played on offense and on defense it was like ‘Oh please, dear god, don’t let them take her to the hole.’ She’s really stepped it up and tried to be a force for us defensively.”
But her mother Liz, a Cal Poly professor, said those two years on the bench were critical building blocks to finding her voice on the team and the success she enjoys now.
“She didn’t get a lot of minutes, but she learned a lot about character and being a teammate and a leader from the bench,” Liz said. “She learned about all the other things you need to know in basketball, besides the talent, and then coach must have been working her behind the scenes to get her ready for this year.”
Ready is an understatement.
Schlemer exploded on offense and defense, leading the team in scoring and rebounding with 13.0 points and 7.2 rebounds per contest. She was most effective on the boards during Cal Poly’s championship game, corralling 16 rebounds, one shy of her career high.
The performance came on the heels of a tournament-high 26 points on Friday against UC Santa Barbara in the semifinals. With the stats and the wins under her belt, she was voted the tournament’s Most Valuable Player five days after becoming the conference’s Player of the Year.
“She’s never had these kind of accolades before,” Liz said. “She’s worked hard and I’m really glad that she gets some now.”
Schlemer may have hid in the shadow of Santiago for years, but finally she has the spotlight all to herself on the biggest stage a Division I Cal Poly program has ever seen.
Best of all, the questions about how Cal Poly can expect to win with Schlemer will fade away.
Maybe one day they’ll ask how they can win without her.