Steady progression defines Hannah Gilbert’s rise with Cal Poly women’s basketball

Long before Hannah Gilbert was considered a focal point of the Cal Poly women’s basketball team and before she emerged as a rising star at Morro Bay High School, longtime Mustangs head coach Faith Mimnaugh simply wanted to get a promising local recruit on campus.

Gilbert was still coming into her own the first time she appeared on Mimnaugh’s radar. And as a lanky high school freshman, the idea of making the 14-mile trip along Highway 1 from Morro Bay to Cal Poly so she could participate in an open gym against college competition was daunting.

“That was complete torture to even think about that,” Mimnaugh recalled this week. “She’d have to chew on Tums.”

Those anxiety-filled open gyms proved to be the foundation for what has been an impressive basketball career on the Central Coast.

The 6-foot-3 Gilbert led Morro Bay to consecutive Los Padres League championships under the direction of CIF-Southern Section Hall of Fame coach Cary Nerelli.

A quick study once she arrived at Cal Poly in 2013, Gilbert benefited from watching another local star, then-senior Molly Schlemer, a two-time Big West Conference Player of the Year. That relationship was perhaps one of the key early sparks in Gilbert’s steady progression over the past four years.

With a refined skill set and nearly unmatched work ethic, the senior forward is one of the Mustangs’ unquestioned leaders this season. Despite often giving up 30-plus pounds to opposing centers, Gilbert is averaging a career-best 16.3 points per game on 53.7-percent shooting from the field, to go with 7.9 rebounds in a team-high 32 minutes per game.

“I like to think that when I do something, I do it to 110 percent,” Gilbert said. “So it takes the stress off of not being prepared when I know I’m out-working my opponent.”

Gilbert’s 29-point, 17-rebound performance against Sacramento State in mid-November certainly grabbed the attention of opposing coaches, leading one to tell Mimnaugh before a recent game, “If you don’t have Hannah, you don’t have anything.”

That hasn’t necessarily been the case this season.

Picked to finish seventh in the Big West preseason coaches’ poll, Cal Poly is 4-4 overall with losses against No. 9 UCLA and No. 10 Stanford. Junior guards and twin sisters Dynn and Lynn Leaupepe are both averaging a career-best 14.1 points per game, while also leading the team in steals and assists.

They will likely benefit from the attention Gilbert draws from opposing defenses inside, which seemed clear against Pepperdine last Saturday. The Waves made a point to sink four or five players into the paint, preventing Gilbert from getting many touches around the rim, where she’s among the most efficient scorers in the country.

The result was a combined 34-point, 18-rebound, five-assist performance from the Leaupepes in a 62-52 victory.

“I’m not really a person that cares if I offensively score a bunch of points,” Gilbert said. “I care about the team success. If they’re doubling me, then one of my teammates is open, so I’m looking for them.”

Dynn Leaupepe said that’s part of what makes Gilbert a respected teammate, adding that she’s even considered “our team mom.”

“She makes sure that we’re OK, that our bodies are healthy and if we need anything — like, anything at all — she’s always there to ask,” said Dynn Leaupepe, who joined Gilbert on the preseason all-Big West team. “She does her work, you know, when it’s not being seen. She’s just a great leader on our team.”

Over the course of her 98-game career, Gilbert has piled up 870 points and grabbed 537 rebounds (No. 9 all-time in Cal Poly history) and will have a chance to finish top-10 in both categories by the end of this season.

Mimnaugh said recruiting players from within San Luis Obispo County has always been a priority for her coaching staff. She estimated Cal Poly has landed about 50 percent of the local recruits it chose to pursue during her 20-year tenure.

Among the most notable locals who stayed are Kristina Santiago, the program’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder who had her jersey retired last week, and Schlemer, who is enjoying a successful professional career overseas.

Mimnaugh also remembers the misses, such as Santa Maria’s Aly Beebe (Stanford), Atascadero’s Haylee Donaghe (UC Davis) and Hannah Donaghe (Stanford), and more recently, Arroyo Grande’s Ashlyn Herlihy (Santa Clara).

For Gilbert, the choice to stay was easy.

“Being a student-athlete is such a difficult thing, I wanted to have the support of my family nearby,” Gilbert said. “Academics at Cal Poly and the campus is just so beautiful, I didn’t really care how close I was to home. I can always venture out once I graduate.”

Because Gilbert has devoted so much time to working on her few shortcomings — foot speed, strength and flexibility — Mimnaugh is confident she will have an opportunity to continue playing beyond this winter.

“She certainly has the talent to play professionally, and if she chooses to do that,” Mimnaugh said, “I know she would have a terrific career.”

Whatever route she takes, Gilbert won’t likely rely on those Tums anymore.

“Talk about a kid who really was nervous and not sure if she’d be able to do this Division I thing,” Mimnaugh said. “To see her master that and really put herself in a position where she could actually help us pursue a championship this year, and certainly put herself in a position where if she continues to play at the rate she’s playing, would certainly be one of the athletes considered for player of the year in the conference.

“It’s a remarkable progression on her part.”

This story was originally published December 6, 2016 at 2:39 PM with the headline "Steady progression defines Hannah Gilbert’s rise with Cal Poly women’s basketball."