The Wildcats could not stop the scoring of the Broncos, who came out on top with a final score of 72-57.

Within the first three minutes of the game, Cal Poly Pomona jumped out to a five point lead, but the lead was quickly diminished to two, when junior forward Brooke Bowen connected on a three-point play.

The Wildcats acquired their only lead of the night with the help of senior guards Annie Ward and Hannah Womack, connecting on three-pointers bringing the score to 12-10. The ‘Cats held on to the lead for 32 seconds.

Chico State’s struggled on offense, going 16-47 shooting for the night. They also had a hard time defending the paint, allowing the Broncos to score 36 points from down low.

The Wildcats went into halftime down 17 with the Broncos leading 40-23.

The team’s struggles on both sides of the court continued in the second half.

Midway through the second half, the Wildcats started to gain momentum bringing the lead down to 8 points, but Cal Poly Pomona’s senior forward Ashley Lovett converted on a lay-up and a free throw putting the Broncos up by 11 points.

Cal Poly Pomona kept applying pressure on offense and defense throughout the rest of the game and Chico State had no answer.

The Wildcats were led by Womack with 15 points and Ward with 10 points.

Chico State are now 8-12 overall and 5-11 in conference play. The Wildcats will head to San Bernardino to face Cal State San Bernardino on Feb. 12 and then to Arcata to face Humboldt State on Feb. 14.

Matthew Vislosky can be reached at [email protected] or @MattVislosky on Twitter.