Leaupepe sisters show the future is bring for Cal Poly women’s basketball
Dynn Leaupepe didn’t hesitate when asked if she brought a little extra motivation into Tuesday night’s Big West Conference Tournament opener.
The Cal Poly women’s basketball team had closed the regular season with a whimper at Hawaii three days earlier, losing by 21 points behind an anemic offensive performance.
So, when the sixth-seeded Mustangs took the court at Bren Events Center on the UC Irvine campus, there wasn’t much No. 7 CSUN could do to slow down a motivated Cal Poly team.
Dynn Leaupepe and her twin sister, Lynn, combined to outscore the Matadors in the first half of Tuesday’s first-round matchup and sent the Mustangs to a convincing 72-51 victory.
(Cal Poly was eliminated Wednesday night after a last-second 54-52 loss to Long Beach State).
Against CSUN on Tuesday, however, the 5-foot-9 sophomore guards from Camarillo combined for 44 points, 12 rebounds and five steals in what head coach Faith Mimnaugh considered their most complete performance of the season.
“I thought that both Lynn and Dynn had the best games I’ve seen them play, both offensively and defensively,” Mimnaugh said. “Sometimes, Dynn is such a offensive producer that sometimes she takes little breaks on defense, and she didn’t do that (Tuesday night).”
Dynn Leaupepe scored a game-high 30 points on 12-for-22 shooting, grabbed six rebounds and had three steals in 32 minutes. It was her 18th double-digit scoring effort of the season, and the 11th since the start of conference play in January.
The 30 points were one short of Dynn Leaupepe’s career high, set during a loss at home against Hawaii on Feb. 4. That made last Saturday’s lackluster outing against the Rainbow Warriors that much harder to swallow. She scored five points on 2-for-12 shooting in a game when no Mustang scored more than eight points.
“I was motivated,” Dynn Leaupepe said, “but at the same time, we left it back on the islands.”
Whatever the source of motivation, the Leaupepe sisters put the rest of the Big West Conference on notice. They showed off a variety of skills offensively, from mid-range jump shots to finishing at the rim with their opposite hand.
Lynn Leaupepe, a starter in all 30 games this season, was an efficient 7-for-11 from the field for 14 points, to go with six rebounds and two steals. She reached double-digit scoring for the 10th time.
“I think it was just based on our focus on defense,” Dynn Leaupepe said. “We knew that we had to get a stop in order to play offense. So, just locking down on defense and recognizing and knowing personnel really helped.”
For the first two months of the season, Mimnaugh preferred to bring Dynn Leaupepe off the bench for an added scoring punch with the second unit. It wasn’t until a Feb. 10 trip north to UC Davis that the longtime head coach inserted the twins into the starting lineup.
Cal Poly had gone 4-4 since — each loss coming against the top four teams in the Big West — perhaps showing Mustang fans a glimpse of what’s to come over the next two years.
The offensive production should come as no surprise given their remarkable prep résumés.
Upon their graduation in 2014, Dynn Leaupepe left as Camarillo’s all-time leader in points (1,884), steals (424) and blocks (240). Lynn Leaupepe averaged a double-double as a senior with 20.2 points and 11.9 rebounds, graduating as the school’s all-time leader in rebounds with 1,069. The sisters shared Ventura County Star Player of the Year honors.
Now two years later, they’ve developed into two of the more versatile players in the Big West. Mimnaugh hopes to see the defensive intensity they displayed against CSUN on a regular basis, knowing that’s when the Mustangs are at their best.
“I thought both of them were obviously outstanding,” Mimnaugh said.
This story was originally published March 9, 2016 at 3:14 PM with the headline "Leaupepe sisters show the future is bring for Cal Poly women’s basketball."