By Luke Thomas, November 25, 2025
The Cal Poly Pomona women’s basketball team opened the season with a 71-62 win over Point Loma Nazarene University and a narrow loss to Azusa Pacific University at the CCAA/PacWest Challenge.
Coming off the team’s best season since 2019, ending with a conference score of 19-3 and finishing overall with 25-6, the CCAA coaches ranked CPP first for the CCAA women’s basketball preseason poll, ahead of California State University, Los Angeles, and Chico State University. Additionally, the team was ranked No. 14 in the country ranking for the WBCA Division II Preseason Poll.
Along with the return of redshirts forward Jeanette Fine and guard Andrea Stajic, the Broncos introduced newcomers Kadence Lloyd and Madison Eade along with guard Jolleen Olia transferring from Citrus College.
CPP opened the weekend with a win against Point Loma with a score of 71-62 Nov. 14, bringing the Broncos 11-5 all-time against the Sea Lions.
The first quarter ended with the Broncos behind 21-5, suffering 11 misses and only scoring a layup by forward Hunter Hudson and a 3-pointer by Fine. Guard Izzy Navarro headed the Sea Lion’s early lead, scoring seven of her 17 points.
The Broncos immediately began picking up the slack in the second quarter with a 10-0 run and a 76.5% shooting percentage, bringing the halftime box score of 32-27 with the Sea Lion’s still ahead by five points.
CPP forward Sydney Nelson dominated the third quarter, scoring 14 of her 30 points. But, by the end of the quarter CPP had only closed the gap by another two points, ending with 52-49, as Sea Lion guard Hannah Golan scored a 3-pointer to cap off the quarter.
“We came out and had a really ugly, slow start,” said head coach Danelle Bishop. “(After the first quarter, we had) the same strategy, different mindset. … Luckily, we were able to weather the storm.”
The tides turned with 7:03 left on the clock in the last quarter as guard Brielle Minor brought the Broncos into the lead with a layup. The Broncos kept on scoring, with an effective defense lowering the Sea Lions’ shooting percentage to 33.3%, not giving Point Loma a chance to take back the lead.
Azuza Pacific guard Vanessa Parilla led the Cougars to a narrow victory just 22 hours later, the Broncos losing 54-53.
The Broncos led at the halftime break, racking up 27 points compared to APU’s 16 but suffered 19 misses, including four of the team’s five 3-pointer attempts.
After halftime, the Cougars began picking up the pace offensively, scoring all six of the team’s 3-pointers within the last two quarters. By the end of the third quarter, APU had reduced the gap to five points.
A clash began in the final minutes as the Cougars finally tied the score to 49-49 with 2:03 left on the clock. The Broncos took back the lead with a layup by Minor, but APU pulled ahead with a 3-pointer by guard Lauren Jones in the last minute. Nelson’s two free throws in the last 10 seconds weren’t enough to pull the Broncos ahead before the clock expired, placing CPP 13-13 all-time against the Cougars.
“We had a lot of things defensively that we didn’t stick to what we practice,” Bishop said. “We had a lot of adversity today, and we need to be able to handle that better. We handled it great (against Point Loma), but on the back-to-back, we didn’t handle it as well.”
The Broncos suffered a scoring percentage of 37.0% throughout the game, with an especially damaging 7.7% for their 3-pointers.
“We’ve had some slow starts recently,” Nelson said. “Sometimes it may feel like we’re waiting for the other team to set the tone and the aggression of the game, … and that’s something we are going to work on. These upcoming games, we’ll use our team chemistry to start off and hit the first punch.”
The Broncos will face off against Biola University Nov. 25 for their second home game of the season.
Feature image courtesy of CPP Athletics