Cal Poly women’s basketball set to play CSUN in Big West Conference Tournament opener

Coming off a humbling defeat in its final game of the regular season, the Cal Poly women’s basketball team turns its attention to the Big West Conference Tournament this week.

Having navigated a challenging schedule and a series of injuries to key players, the Mustangs have one more opportunity to extend their season.

Cal Poly finished sixth in the final Big West standings and is scheduled to play seventh-seeded CSUN at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday in the first round of the Big West Conference Tournament. That game will be held at Bren Events Center on the UC Irvine campus and broadcast on ESPN3.

The Mustangs (14-15) closed out conference play with a 21-point setback at Hawaii this past Saturday. They flew to Los Angeles on Sunday and began preparing for their third matchup this season with the two-time defending conference tournament champion Matadors (7-23).

“CSUN is very good, especially how young they are,” 19th-year head coach Faith Mimnaugh said. “It’s amazing what (CSUN coach Jason Flowers) has been able to do with the young squad. At the start of the season they were really, really struggling. He’s kind of got them playing well.”

One of the biggest question marks surrounding Cal Poly heading into the conference tournament is the health of forward Hannah Gilbert.

The 6-foot-3 junior was named to the all-Big West second team Monday morning after leading the Mustangs with 12.8 points and 8.6 rebounds per game.

A nagging lower leg injury kept Gilbert from playing against Hawaii, and Mimnaugh did not sound overly optimistic about her potential production against the Matadors and beyond.

“She’s a trooper,” Mimnaugh said. “I think she’s at least going to give it a go.”

If Gilbert is unavailable or substantially limited, the Mustangs will likely lean on fellow junior Amanda Lovely (6-2), sophomore Mary Kate Evans (6-2) and sophomore Nikki Fausey (6-4) to provide some length inside.

Much of CSUN’s offense revolves around 6-4 center Channon Fluker, who was chosen as the Big West Freshman of the Year. She averages a double-double with 13.7 points and 10.0 rebounds per game while shooting 49.7 percent from the field.

“I think it’s good for her to be rewarded for the journey,” Flowers said. “… If somebody would have said right before Christmas time, that she would be in this situation as far as being recognized for what she’s done this year, I would have thought that they were crazy.

“She had a lot to learn in a short amount of time.”

Fluker was the only player in the Big West to average double-digits in rebounds, and her 13.7 points per game stand as the fourth-highest total in the conference. She wasn’t overly effective in either matchup with Cal Poly during the regular season.

When the two teams met in San Luis Obispo in mid-January, Fluker had 10 points and 10 rebounds in a 66-62 overtime defeat. She was held to six points and five rebounds in a 77-66 loss in Northridge on Feb. 20.

“We’re looking forward to the challenge,” Flowers said. “Obviously, we lost both games this year and we’ll see if we can make some adjustments.”

CSUN won the conference tournament in 2014 and 2015, thanks in large part to a decorated senior class that graduated last spring with 74 career victories. Those departures left Flowers in a rebuilding year with one of the youngest team in the country.

They showed flashes of being a dangerous team and one of their five conference victories came against second-place Hawaii. Fluker erupted for 31 points and 11 rebounds that night, helping CSUN overcome a 14-point second-half deficit.

Flowers said this year’s group didn’t play “to the standard that we like to be defensively” and the Matadors expect to have their hands full on Tuesday.

Cal Poly’s Beth Balbierz and Dynn Leaupepe each garnered all-Big West honorable mention. They have been two of the Mustangs’ most consistent threats offensively and will be counted on to produce offensively this week.

Leaupepe averaged 19.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.5 steals in the two regular season meetings with CSUN. She came off the bench in 22 of 29 games and averaged 11.6 points per contest.

Mimnaugh called Leaupepe a “tremendous scorer” and said her uptick in production during the second half of the conference season can be attributed to her improved health.

“She injured her ankle in November and was really having a hard time getting the lift to push off on her jump shot,” Mimnaugh said. “It really did take her at least a month to get the same kind of explosiveness that she previously had. I think a lot of it is her health.

“She puts in a ton of work.”

This story was originally published March 7, 2016 at 3:27 PM with the headline "Cal Poly women’s basketball set to play CSUN in Big West Conference Tournament opener."