A trio of Mustangs scored between 13 and 18 points each on Thursday evening against UC Riverside, leading the Cal Poly women’s basketball team to a 62-52 Big West Conference road victory over the Highlanders in SRC Arena.
The win places Cal Poly (4-8 BWC; 7-16 overall) just a half-game back of both Riverside (4-7; 8-17) and CSUN (4-7; 9-16) for seventh place in the league standings, while securing a potential tiebreaker vs. UCR thanks to a regular-season sweep. (The top eight teams in the regular season will advance to the Big West Tournament, held from March 10-14 in Long Beach and Anaheim.)
Mustang freshman point guard Abbey Ellis tallied a game-high 18 points, while grad forward Alicia Roufosse added 17 points, and junior forward Sierra Campisano posted 13 points along with 10 rebounds.
It was the eighth double-double of the season for Campisano, the second-most throughout the conference.
Riverside jumped out to an early 7-2 lead Thursday when Jannon Otto sank a 3-pointer three-&-a-half minutes after the opening tip, but Campisano answered with a jumper outside the key, before Ellis knocked down a 3, quickly tying the game en route to a 14-13 lead heading into the second quarter.
Maddie Vick made a jumper to push Cal Poly’s lead to 29-23 late in the second, but the Highlanders kept it close, narrowing the gap to 31-30 by the break. Neither side led by any more than six prior to intermission, as the first half featured six lead changes & four ties.
Cal Poly began to add some separation midway through the third quarter, thanks to an 8-0 run consisting of a jumper by Roufosse, a drive by Hannah Peterson, an interior basket for Roufosse and then an Ellis runner in the lane, establishing a 47-38 advantage with 1:28 to play in the period.
Roufosse added another jumper almost halfway through the fourth to give the Mustangs their largest lead of the night: 56-44 with 5:07 remaining. Although UCR pulled within a six-point deficit on two occasions to follow, the Highlanders would get no closer, as Peterson and Ellis combined to go 4-for-4 at the free-throw line in the final 31 seconds to ice the outcome.
Cal Poly went a flawless 9-for-9 at the foul line during the evening, and compiled a 27-15 upper hand in points-off-turnovers.
Roufosse shot a team-best 8-of-12 from the floor, and junior guard Malia Holt claimed three steals in the win, matching her season-high.
The Mustangs continue their road trip this weekend, traveling to UC Irvine (5-7; 8-17) for a 2 p.m. tipoff on Saturday at Bren Events Center.
-Provided by Cal Poly
