ST. JOSEPH, MO — Cal State San Marcos women’s basketball did the unthinkable on Monday evening, defeating top-seeded Gannon University in the Division II NCAA Tournament Elite Eight and punching its ticket to the Final Four.
The historic win took an overtime period, overcoming the loss of three key players — one to injury, two to fouls — and an unusually poor three-point shooting performance to knock off NCAA DII Player of the Year Samantha Pirosko and the 35-win Golden Knights.
At the final whistle, San Marcos held court, 85-80.
“Gannon is tough,” said CSUSM head coach Renee Jimenez after the game. “That was a great learning experience for us and our kids. I think we came in feeling like it was David versus David, but at one point, it felt like David versus Goliath.”
Win or lose, this was already the most successful season in program history for the Cougars, who made their first-ever Elite Eight appearance a season after making their first-ever Sweet 16 appearance.
“We are a little bit of the new kids on the block here coming off being NAIA seven years ago,” said Jimenez the day before the Gannon game. “To have this quick transition for us has been big for our university, athletic department and San Diego in general.”
Gannon opened the game by winning the tip-off, converting an easy basket, but except for a stretch of the second period that saw the Cougars fall behind by 12, San Marcos parried everything.
When in doubt, the Cougs often looked to West Regional Tournament MVP, six-foot, red-shirt senior Jordan Vasquez.
After breaking her nose on three separate occasions, Vasquez, playing in a Phantom of the Opera-style mask for much of the season, was nearly unstoppable at the basket, shooting 10 of 13 from the floor for 26 points.
“I am super excited,” said Vasquez. “We are going up against the best competition, so I feel great right now. It was a tough win.”
Late in the fourth period, Vasquez and indispensable reserve Ava Ranson fouled out, leaving the Cougars shorthanded for the overtime period.
“I had faith in my team the whole time — I was cool, calm, and collected,” Vasquez said. “I knew my team would get it done.”
“Jordan’s almost in tears; Ava Ranson is almost in tears because they want so badly to be a part of it,” added Jimenez. “All we’ve done for the last two or three tournaments is have other guys step up.”
Charity Gallegos — controlled chaos packaged as a 5-foot-4-inch point guard from Sacramento — took over, scoring seemingly impossible layups in traffic and finding junior Malia Mastora for a game-sealing three.
“We want the ball in Charity’s hands late,” said Jimenez. “But when there are three guys guarding her, she makes the right play every time.”
“We practice those shots daily; coach is big on making sure we get our 100 shots up every practice,” Mastora added.
The coming Final Four appearance is a far cry from the humble origins of the Cal State San Marcos athletic program. When the program launched in 1998, six teams were confined to three modestly sized classrooms with only two coaches on staff.
And then there were the growing pains that came with transitioning from an NAIA school to an NCAA DII.
“The first three to four years, we took our lumps,” Jimenez said. “We didn’t win a conference game our first year. You are also in a probationary period with the NCAA so you are trying to recruit a group, and in the first three years, there is no postseason play.”
Win No. 27 on the season is a program record.
“We are going to ride this wave as long as we can,” said Jimenez.
San Marcos takes on Minnesota State Wednesday at 6:30 p.m., Pacific Time, with a National Championship game appearance on the line.
