In what was a tight game down the stretch of regulation, Lulu Twidale came up with a number of clutch buckets to help the California women’s basketball team to a 78-71 overtime win against Stanford at Haas Pavilion on Sunday afternoon in front of a crowd of over 4,500 fans. Down one with 27 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Twidale drilled a 3-pointer to give the Golden Bears the lead and then nailed two more from distance in the opening minutes of overtime to power an 8-2 run that kept Stanford at bay and help Cal secure the win.
The Golden Bears (12-9, 3-5 ACC) evened the season series with the Cardinal (15-6, 4-4) and have now won three of the last four matchups. Cal is also now 26-2 overall at home going back to last season.
Twidale ended up with 24 points for her second straight 20-plus point game after pouring in 36 in her previous game at Boston College. Taylor Barnes hit a couple of 3-pointers on her way to 15 points to go along with five rebounds and Sakima Walker rounded out the Bears in double figures with 13 points while blocking three shots. Gisella Maul played all 45 minutes and led the team in rebounds with eight and Claudia Langarita played 13 minutes in her return after a 10-game absence.
With under three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter and Stanford up by one, Walker and Maul combined for three timely blocks on Stanford’s next two possessions to keep them from extending their lead. After Twidale knocked down the three that put Cal up two, the Bears got a defensive stop forcing the Cardinal to have to foul and put the Bears on the free throw line. Twidale converted 1-of-2 from the line and Stanford’s Lara Somfai received a pass at the top of the key and hit the 3-pointer to tie the game with 7.5 seconds left. Mjracle Sheppard took the inbounds pass and raced down the court but was unable to hit the game-winner sending the game into overtime.
Twidale drilled a 3-pointer on Cal’s first possession in OT and after Stanford missed four straight shots on its second possession of the quarter, Walker hit a turnaround layup in the paint followed by Twidale’s third 3-pointer of the game that put the Bears up 73-67 with 2:05 remaining. The Cardinal would only get as close as four points the rest of the way.
After falling down by 10 points in the first quarter, the Bears responded in the second and used a 7-0 run aided by a Maul triple off a fastbreak to get within two points with 3:01 left. The Bears held the Cardinal to just 1-of-9 from the field to end the second quarter and went into the break tied at 34-34 after Lola Donez got a strip and steal that led to a Twidale fastbreak layup and Barnes scored off an offensive rebound putback on Cal’s last two possessions.
Twidale found Barnes in the corner for a triple to fuel a 6-0 run and put Cal up 42-36 at the 6:16 mark in the third. Langarita found Maul on the wing for her second 3-pointer to extend Cal’s lead to 47-39, but Stanford responded by hitting three straight from the field to end the quarter and close the gap to 52-48 going into the final frame.
“I’m really excited that we were able to get this win and this is a huge win against a really good team, and it's always good to win a rivalry game,” Cal head coach Charmin Smith said. “I'm proud of how we battled through adversity. We weren't perfect, but we did enough things to get over the hump and be successful, and that's something that we really needed, and we’ve been trying really, really hard to get a quality win by playing well down the stretch, and I think you saw that particularly in overtime.”
Stanford was led by Lara Somfai and Alexander Eschmeyer who had 16 points each.
NEXT UP
Cal stays home to face Notre Dame on Thursday at 7 p.m. PT.
