The Cal Poly Women’s Basketball lost its second consecutive conference game to the University of Hawaii on Saturday, Dec. 31, by a score of 50-47 inside the Mott Athletics Center.
After leading at halftime, the Mustangs (3-7, 0-2 Big West) outplayed Rainbow Wahine’s (4-7, 2-0 Big West) offense as they were overscored in the 3rd and 4th quarters. could not be contained.
Cal Poly started the first quarter with an 8-0 run in the first four minutes, but managed to score only two points the entire quarter. Despite this, they held his 10-9 advantage.
The Mustangs started another 8-0 run to start the quarter with the help of two 3-pointers from freshman guard Nikola Kovackova.
Cal Poly then added two more 3-pointers from junior guard Junie Dixon and began to go the distance to end the quarter, making the score 23–14 at halftime.
Cal Poly appeared to have all the momentum out of the half, but struggled to get the offense offensive in the third quarter, giving Hawaii many chances to tune for eight fouls.
Nine of Hawaii’s 19 points scored in the third quarter came from free throws as the Mustang lead narrowed to 36-33 heading into the final quarter.
Scoring came and went in the fourth quarter until Hawaii took its first lead of the game with 4:30 left in the game. Cal Poly then regained the lead with 3:44 remaining, but Hawaii retook the lead with 3:23 remaining and did not give up the lead for the remainder of the game.
The Mustangs had many opportunities to tie the game or take the lead at the end of the game, but fell just short with a final score of 50-47.
A foul again hit Cal Poly in the fourth quarter as nine of Hawaii’s 17 points came from the Charity Stripes.
The difference between the two teams in the game was the turnover points as Hawaii outscored Cal Poly 17-8 in that division.
The Mustangs will look to their first game of the new year as they continue conference play against CSU Bakersfield inside the Mott Athletics Center on Thursday, January 5 at 6pm.