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VIDEO - Thanksgiving tournament highlights
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Despite an all-tournament team performance from
Rachel Howard, the San Francisco women's basketball team fell at Cal Poly, 76-65, at Robert A. Mott Gymnasium.
Howard, a freshman from Berkeley, Calif., finished the night with team-highs of 18 points and four assists for the Dons in Saturday's contest. All told on the weekend, Howard combined to lead USF with 35 points as the Dons split a pair of games at the Cal Poly Holiday Beach Classic.
For the first time on the season, USF only benefitted from double-digit scoring from two women, with
Taylor Proctor adding 12 points in the contest. Narrowly missing the 10-point mark, point guard
Zhané Dikes finished with nine points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
For the Mustangs, senior Molly Schlemer powered in a game-high 21 points and earned the double-double with 10 rebounds on the night. The 6-5 center was an efficient 9-for-12 from the floor, and helped Cal Poly earn the 52-42 rebounding edge. Cal Poly's 18 offensive boards led to 15 second-chance points on the night.
With the win, Cal Poly improves to 4-4 on the year, while the Dons move to 2-4 on the season.
The Dons started on the defensive for the second-straight game. USF found itself down 8-3 by the first timeout on the night before the Dons turned on the jets on both sides of the floor. A freshman-to-freshman play with Howard assisting
Claudia Price for the layup started an 11-0 run as USF gained the 16-10 advantage.
USF's largest lead of the night, six points, was quickly erased. Cal Poly roared back with 12 unanswered to get up 22-16 after Kristen Ale's jumper from the lane with 8:43 to play in the first. The Dons hung tough through the remainder of the first, and cut the lead to four points when
Jamie Katuna's jumper in the paint put the score at 34-30 in favor of the Mustangs with 12 ticks remaining in the half. Jonae Ervin ended the period with a streaking drive for the basket with three seconds on the clock.
The Dons came out of the halftime break with a
Taj Winston layup to start the period, but Cal Poly extended their advantage to eight as Schlemer went in for the layup with 15:41 to play. With the score at 54-46 in favor of the Mustangs, a Howard 3-pointer started a spurt on both sides of the ball. Howard followed it up with a steal on defense, and the fast break conversion to cut the Cal Poly lead to one possession.
Paige Spietz received the pass from Howard and sunk the shot with 8:46 remaining, and the score was 56-55.
Despite getting the Cal Poly lead down to one point, the Dons couldn't get on the high side of the scoreboard as the Mustangs opened up a 18-5 run to power to the 14-point advantage. USF found itself on the losing end of a 76-65 contest to close out the Thanksgiving road trip.
Now USF returns home for two games at War Memorial Gym. Up next, the Dons host UNLV on the Hilltop Friday, Dec. 6, at 7 p.m.
