ANCHORAGE, Ak. – With the NCAA Division II West Region championship on the line, both California Baptist University and Cal Poly Pomona wanted to come out and impose their style and will on the other.
 
In a battle of strength vs. strength, CBU was clearly too strong for Cal Poly Pomona in an 81-58 victory Monday night at the Alaska Airlines Center. The Lancers were most impressive on the defensive end, holding a Bronco team that came into the playoffs averaging 46 percent from the field, which ranks eighth in Division II, to a miniscule 30.9 percent (21-for-68). It led to CBU winning a West Region title and improving to 27-6. Cal Poly Pomona – a region champion and a Final Four qualifier in 2014 – ends the year with a 21-9 record.
 
"Tonight was a really good performance for us, the team did a really good job defensively," Coach Jarrod Olson said, "which I would say has been the biggest improvement the last two weeks or so – our attention to detail defensively. It helped us play a little better on offense, too, that's been a big part of it."
 
In its first NCAA playoff appearance, CBU has become the first PacWest women's basketball team to reach the Elite 8. The tournament will be held in Sioux Falls, S.D. and the Lancers will open with East Region champion New Haven on March 24^th.
 
Darsha Burnside was named the West Region Tournament Most Outstanding Player for CBU. She nearly logged a double-double with 15 rebounds, eight points and five blocks and altered countless other shots on Monday, like she had all tournament. Her five blocks put her with 104 on the year, sitting third in the single-season record book behind Sonja Akkerman's second place 105 blocks (1987-88) and first-place 117 blocks (1990-91).
 
"Obviously, Darsha is a great defender, she does a good job for us in the paint," Olson said. "She alters shots and block shots, then she gets 15 rebounds and nobody is even talking about it. She gets double-digit rebounds just falling out of bed in the morning."
 
Cassidy Mihalko earned all-tournaments honors, as well, after an all-around performance for the Lancers. She finished Monday night with 16 points on 5-for-10 shooting, seven rebounds and six assists.
 
"We were pretty nervous early on, but you just have to focus defensively, put your energy into the right things and really just know you can win the game," Mihalko said. "That's what we did, went in with confidence, played as a team and it was just fun for us out there."
 
When it came down to it, the key to the Lancers' domination was their ability to deny the Broncos the opportunity to feed their posts. CPP had to settle for perimeter jumpers, not its usual around-the-rim dominance all night.
 
"We didn't have a lot of time to prepare for them, but each of the coaches took a game and got a plan together," Olson said of their scout of the Broncos. "[The players] were able to take what we were talking about and able to apply it into the game. We were able to take CPP out of its offense pretty early and they just weren't quite ready to respond to that."
 
"Scout helps a lot so we know what to focus our energy on defensively," guard Erin Asher added.  "We studied it and just went for it, all our energy was on defense and the offense just came."
 
A total of six players scored at least seven points for the Lancers, including Mihalko and Burnside.
 
"We're probably a little more balanced than the statistics would indicate because we're really good at sharing the ball and everyone has the green light," Olson said. "We talk a lot about the ball finding the shooter, instead of trying to force it somewhere. … It could be somebody different depending on the situation, but everybody is just trusting each other to move the ball to the right person and when you're open it's your turn."
 
Shooting-and-passing wise, Kamille Diaz led the way with 18 points on 6-for-13 from the field and 4-of-9 from three, while dishing out seven assists and grabbing six rebounds. Asher played a huge role off the bench, scoring eight big points in the first half before finishing with 13 (4-for-8, 3-of-5 from three) and four dimes. Chanel Cambronero also had eight points in the first half.  
 
"I didn't get off to the start I wanted, but I know when I got back in there I just had to press the reset button and keep going," Asher said. "Everyone has their job and you just have to go do it."
 
Courtney Nelson and Megan Brown had solid game on both ends. Nelson finished the game with five steals, seven points, three rebounds and two assists. Brown was close to a double-double with eight rebounds and six points, while also playing solid defense down low.
 
For the second night in a row, both teams got off to a slow start offensively, but CBU came out on the other end with an 11-2 lead about five minutes into the game off five Mihalko points, including a run-capping three, two Burnside jumpers and another from Nelson.
  
With under nine minutes to go, CPP even pulled within 16-15 before the Lancers went on a 15-5 run, thanks to two threes each from Asher and Cambronero, to grab a 31-20 edge four minutes before the break.
 
Cal Poly Pomona answered to pull within six, 31-25, with 1:05 remaining. CBU would go two-for-one down the stretch, though, to take an eight-point lead into halftime, 35-27, after Burnside rattled a layup off the glass three seconds before the buzzer.
 
The Broncos managed to pull within six 3:30 into the second half, but the Lancers all but put the game away with a 13-1 run, behind five points from Mihalko and threes from Asher and Diaz. Nelson ended the run and gave CBU a 50-32 lead with 13:56 remaining with a layup in transition.
 
With 9:34 left, Cal Poly Pomona managed to scrap back within 11, 54-43, but Brown opened up another 11-0 charge with a layup shortly thereafter. Mihalko, Asher and Diaz all added to the run that gave the Lancers a sizable 65-43 lead with 7:31 to go.
 
Hope was running out when the Broncos managed to bring themselves within 70-51 with 3:37 left. Diaz knocked down two free throws to restore the 20-point advantage and then hit a three with 1:35 to go that put the Lancers up 76-56. Olivia Weber and Brittany Sepeda capped the scoring, with Sepeda hitting a three with 42 seconds to go to end the scoring.
 
"It feels great, we worked really hard to get here and we knew we were capable of it," Mihalko said. "We just had to play as a team, focus defensively and take it one game at a time. We still aren't done. We just have to keep working hard."