The No. 3 ranked Cal Poly Pomona women’s basketball team hosted the No. 6 ranked Stanislaus State Warriors in the first round of the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) on March 3 in Kellogg Arena.
The Broncos defeated the Warriors in the regular season 69-65, but were not able to pull out a win in the CCAA first round.
The Warriors came out with an aggressive play style, pressing players on both sides of the court. They made it tough for the Broncos to move the ball around and get into their rhythm.
However, the Broncos still showed the grit they have shown all season and fought until the last seconds of the game.
Head coach Danelle Bishop raved about her team’s drive for success.
Although she was not happy with the result of the game, she acknowledged the fight her team put up.
“They’ve been great,” Bishop said. “They’ve fought adversity. They work extremely hard. I think that’s evident if you ever come to one of our games to see their passion, their toughness.
“They want to be known as a team that was gritty and I think through this year, you definitely could say we are gritty,” Bishop said. “We have a special group, and it’s been just a pure joy to come into work every day to be able to work with them … it’s not always been red roses, sometimes it’s hard. I think those are the times that we grow the most and flourish the most.”
Senior guard Dominique Dotson led the team in scoring with 12 points and in steals with five. Bishop appreciates Dotson’s efforts on the court and the hustle that isn’t recorded on the stat sheet.
She said Dotson has stepped up to her role of being the defensive stopper and feels she’s the glue to the team.
Dotson tried to keep her team’s chances alive by forcing her way to the free throw line and drilling an impressive 8-for-9 free throws.
“We knew that Stanislaus was an aggressive team defensively, so our mindset going in was just being really aggressive on the offensive end and attacking,” Dotson said. “I was trying to attack their bigs and go up strong.”
The Broncos played a strong third quarter and created some lead changes, but could not get over the hump in the fourth quarter. Senior forward Kasey Smit contributed 10 points and seven rebounds to push for a lead.
Smit has been the player all season to get things going on the offensive end for the Broncos, but it was difficult to do so with the Warriors double-teaming the ballhandler.
Smit knew her team had to move the ball around to find open players.
“It was challenging, but I tried to focus on the little things and hope I can get open shots and do something for my team,” Smit said.
“We were trying to find the hot hand and get some momentum going, like Dominique attacking the basket, Mylah (Andrada) hitting those shots, Jayda (Villareal) hitting shots. I was contributing to passing the ball to them and trying to find other people to get open and battle on defense.”
Ricketson, Smit and Dotson were all named on the 2020 All-CCAA Team, which was announced last week.
This marked Ricketson’s third All-CCAA honor, but it was her first time landing a First Team award.
It was both Smit and Dotson’s first All-CCAA nod.
The Broncos fell to the Warriors 65-53.
The Broncos will now enter the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II West Regional quarterfinals in Hawaii as the No 8 seed, taking on the No.1 seed, Hawaii Pacific University on Friday.