Sierra Campisano scored 17 points to lead the Cal Poly women’s basketball team on Saturday night at Hawaii, but the Rainbow Wahine made 12 of 26 attempts from 3-point range on their Senior Night, closing the regular season with a 75-58 win at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Campisano shot 6-of-15 overall for the evening, including 2-for-2 from behind the arc. While finishing just three points shy of her 12th 20-point performance of the year, the junior forward added a 3-for-4 night at the free-throw line.
As the No. 8 seed to the Big West Conference Tournament, the Mustangs (6-10 BWC; 9-18 overall) will face No. 5-seeded Long Beach State (8-8 BWC; 13-16) at 6 p.m. in Tuesday’s first round at LBSU’s Walter Pyramid.
Long Beach wrapped up its regular season with back-to-back home wins, including 66-57 over top seed UC Davis in the finale. (Cal Poly and LBSU split during the year, with The Beach winning 72-69 at home on Jan. 9 before the Mustangs earned a 61-41 victory in San Luis Obispo on Feb. 8.)
En route to improving to 10-6 playing in O’ahu this year, Hawaii (9-7; 15-14) sprinted out to a 9-0 lead 3 minutes & 16 seconds from Saturday’s opening tip.
After starting the second quarter down 21-9, Cal Poly pulled as close as 32-24 midway through the second period, as a 6-0 run comprised of a Campisano basket in the key, and a layup followed by a jumper by freshman point guard Abbey Ellis cut the gap to an eight-point margin with 3:52 remaining to halftime.
The Wahine, however, re-established the double-digit lead approaching the break, and pushed the advantage to 42-29 thanks to a Nae Nae Calhoun 3-pointer on their last possession of the half.
UH then extended its lead to 61-39 by the end of the third quarter, before the Mustangs narrowed the deficit to 64-50 with 3:43 remaining on a pair of free throws by Ellis. Shortly afterward, though, Julissa Tago — twice a conference player of the week this year — knocked down a 3 to stretch Hawaii's lead back to 17, at 69-52 with 2:27 left.
Ellis finished with 15 points and six rebounds for Cal Poly, while grad forward Alicia Roufosse added 12.
Tago, who shot 7-for-14 overall and 4-of-8 from 3-point range, paced the Wahine with 19 points & nine boards.
Tournament action, in addition to being telecast by ESPN3/the WatchESPN app, will also be broadcast on ESPN Radio 1280 AM/101.7 FM The Ticket with Zachary Anderson-Yoxsimer, available to stream via GoPoly.com.
-Provided by Cal Poly
