Bears Dominant In Win Over Saint Mary’s

BERKELEY – The California women’s basketball team opened the 2024-25 season with a dominant defensive performance coupled with an impressive offensive display to put the Saint Mary’s Gaels away 90-58 at Haas Pavilion Monday evening. The win extended the Golden Bears’ win streak in the series to seven games and marked the largest margin of victory over the Gaels since an 89-41 win on Nov. 5, 2012.

Lulu Twidale led the way for the Bears (1-0, 0-0) with game highs of 24 points and five 3-pointers. The point total tied her career high while the triples were just one away. Michelle Onyiah blocked four shots (one shy of her career high) to give her 103 for her career, moving her into a tie for sixth place with Ingrid Dixson on Cal’s all-time career list.

The Bears held the Gaels (0-1, 0-0) to just 3-of-14 from beyond the arc and 40.7% from the field while hitting on 14-of-30 from downtown and shooting 49.1% overall. Cal outrebounded Saint Mary’s 41-25 for the game. Marta Suárez nearly had a double-double with 17 points and eight rebounds while Ioanna Krimili poured in 14 points which included four 3-pointers after coming into the game with 337 career 3-pointers which led the country.

After Saint Mary’s hit the game’s opening bucket Cal went on a 15-0 run powered by a pair of triples each from Suárez and Krimili. The Gaels didn’t hit their next field goal until there were just four minutes left in the quarter, however they were able to respond with an 11-0 run to cut the Bears’ lead to 15-13 with one minute remaining before Twidale ended it with a triple. Cal would take a 25-20 lead heading into the second quarter.

Onyiah opened the second quarter with four straight points to help take back the momentum. The Bears continued to stay hot while stifling the Gaels with a 7-0 run to take a 31-17 lead midway through the quarter. Cal added a 9-0 run with the help of a Twidale 3-point play to expand its lead to 42-21 with two minutes in the half with Onyiah recording her 100th career block during that stretch. The Bears outrebounded the Gaels 24-11 for the half.

The Bears continued their hot shooting connecting on their first three field goals to open the second half capped by a 3-point play opportunity by Kayla Williams. Jayda Noble found a cutting Natalia Ackerman to give Cal its biggest lead of the game at 58-34 with 2:35 left in the quarter. Twidale extended that margin to 27 with her fifth triple of the evening with 8:05 left in the game. The Bears maintained its advantage for the remainder of the contest to cruise to the win.

The Gaels were led by Emily Foy’s 13 points and seven rebounds.

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Cal stays home to face Idaho State on Thursday at 11 a.m. PT.