SLO Reporter

Coming off collecting its first Big West win of the season Thursday, the Cal Poly women's basketball team gets set for a road contest at rival UC Santa Barbara Saturday.
 
The Mustangs (4-7, 1-2 BW) will face the Gauchos (8-4, 1-1 BW) Saturday at 4 p.m. inside the Thunderdome. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+. Links to that as well as live stats to follow can be found on the schedule page.
 
Thursday, the Mustangs got their first Big West win under head coach Shanele Stires after beating CSU Bakersfield at home, 50-37. It's the fewest points Cal Poly has allowed by an opponent in a game this season.
 
Junior guard Taylor Wu led the Mustangs in scoring with 11 points on a career-high three threes, all of which came in the first half. Junior forward Natalia Ackerman nearly posted a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds to go along with a career-high three blocks and two steals. Graduate guard Niki Kovacikova added nine points, five rebounds and four assists. All three players came off the bench to account for Cal Poly's 30 bench points.
 
Sophomore guard Annika Shah continues to lead the team in scoring at 11.5 points per game while also leading the team is assists at 2.6 per game. Her 38.1 percent shooting clip from three ranks second in the Big West and 98th in the nation.
 
In all four of Cal Poly's wins this season, the Mustangs have held opponents to 53 points or less.
 
Through the first 11 games of the season, the Mustangs rank fifth in the Big West in three-point percentage at 31.3. Last year, Cal Poly was last in the conference in shooting from three at 24 percent.
 
They also rank third in the conference in offensive rebounds at 11.7 per game.
 
Following Saturday's game, Cal Poly will host Long Beach State Wednesday, Jan. 11 at 6 p.m. in its lone game of next week.
 
Scouting UCSB: The Roadrunners come into Saturday's game 1-1 in Big West play after splitting their first two games last week. They started by beating Cal State Fullerton 66-59 before falling to UC San Diego by 10. During non-conference play, they went 7-3. So far, the Gauchos lead the conference in scoring at 70.8 points per game, field goal percentage at 43.7 percent, rebounds per game at 38.9 per game, and assists at 16 per game. Senior forward Ila Lane leads the Big West in rebounds at 8.5 per game. She's also second on the team in scoring at 12.9 points per game and has four double-doubles on the season. Senior guard Alexis Tucker leads UCSB in scoring at 13.1 points per game which ranks sixth in the Big West.
 
Shah Leads The Scoring: Sophomore guard Annika Shah leads the Mustangs in scoring this season at 11.5 points per game. That's an improvement of nearly eight points of what she averaged as a freshman last season, the biggest jump of anyone on the team. She's scored in double figures five times, including over 20 twice and has led the team in scoring in six of the 11 games so far.
 
Returning Mustangs: Despite losing two starters from last year, Cal Poly brings back plenty from last year's team. Two  of the team's top three scorers are back this year.
 
Senior guard Maddie Willett returns after being second on the team in scoring last year at 8.9 ppg while leading the team in made threes and three point percentage.
 
Senior forward Julia Nielacna is also back after averaging 8.3 ppg last season while playing in 24 of 25 games and starting 11.
 
In addition to those two, there are five players back this season who played in at least 22 games last year.
 
New Stangs: Cal Poly added seven newcomers to this year's team, four freshmen and three Division I transfers. The three transfers consist of graduate student Nikola Kovacikova, graduate student Oumou Toure, and junior Taylor Wu.
 
Kovacikova comes to Cal Poly after previously playing at both Penn and Georgetown. Last season at Penn, she played in 19 games with eight starts. Off the court, she earned Penn's Norman J. Goldring Prize and George H. Frazier Prize which is given to a senior female student-athlete with the highest GPA. She spent her first two collegiate seasons at Georgetown. As a sophomore in 2019-20, she appeared in 27 games with 12 starts and was the Hoyas' third-leading scorer, averaging 7.9 ppg.
 
Toure comes to Cal Poly after having spent the last three years at Butler. She played her freshman season before missing the next two due to injury and the COVID pandemic. As a freshman in 2019-20, she was named to the Big East All-Freshman Team. That season, she appeared in 27 games, making 20 starts and ranked second on the team in scoring at 9.1 points per game while shooting 46 percent from the field to go along with 6.1 rebounds per game. She also led the Big East and ranked 45th in the NCAA in steals per game at 2.33.
 
Wu spent the last three seasons at California Baptist University where she played in 70 career games. She made her mark as a freshman in 2019-20, averaging 6.6 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 1.7 apg in 18.4 minutes per game. She broke the program's freshman single game scoring record after dropping 37 points against Ottawa (AZ) and in the same game broke the program record for threes made in a game with 10.
 
As a sophomore, she started 19 of 27 games, averaging 8.9 ppg, 1.7 apg, and 21.9 minutes per game. She scored in double figures 11 times including a season-high 15 against Pepperdine. 

Original source can be found here.