They were 22-10 last season as a NAIA team. The Lions averaged 75 ppg. Vanguard returns all five starters from last season. SR Vanessa Murphy (#25) is a second team NAIA All-American. She is 6-1 wing that averaged approximately 17 ppg, & 9.3 rebounds per game. Victoria Chea, 5-4 senior PG (#12), is a Honorable Mention NAIA AA. She averaged 3.16 assists/g & 1.78 steals/g. She is a good three point shooter and connects on 87.5% on her FTs. #44 Michaela Elad is a junior rebounder and has THEIR highest FG% of 49.1%. Two other starting guards return in SR Sierra Vaglica and JR #3 Tristen Rollon. Vaglica owns the highest three point % of 41.1%. The Lions also have a promising freshman from Tennessee in #15 Maija Bradford and a top soph guard off of the bench in Gabriela Rosas.

Vanguard lost a NAIA playoff game 77-73 to end their 2018 season. Murphy was keyed on and held to 7-16 or 15 points. Chea contributed 5-9 for 14 points. The teammate that picked up the slack was Rollon who connected on 7-11 shots for 21 points. She hit several treys.

The Lions are redshirting a 6-9 frosh from Kenya. Their weakness is lack of size and rebounding. Their strength is that they can shoot and they are experienced playing together.

Cal has to defend the perimeter shooting or they could yield double-digit threes. Last game vs Beijing National U the Bears did not do a good job in this area. Will Jaelyn Brown (6-1) attempt to defend their All-American, Murphy (6-1)?

The Vanguard Lions are a good team without size. Last season they were competitive with all their opponents except for road games @ Stanford & @ UConn when they were outclassed by 50 points or more. GO BEARS!

6 minutes to go in second, Cal leads 24-15.
Murphy is 0-4; Chea with 9 (4-7, 1-1)Vanguard shooting 26% and 30% from three.
Bears are shooting 43% and just made their first three (Styles) - 1 of 7
LS with 6, West with 6 Styles with 5
5 assists on 10 made FG - but no one has more than 1 assist

A classic Cal series just now-
SA misses a three, Chen rebounds.
Chen misses hook. Chen rebounds
SA misses layup, Brown rebounds
Brown misses layup, Brown rebounds
And finally Styles scores

So, I'm not good at a screenshot -
McIntosh is 0-5 (0-4 on 3s) 3 rebounds, no assists 1 foul in 14 minutes
SA is 6 points on 3-6 (0-1) no rebounds, 2 assists, 1 turnover in 16 minutes
LS is 8 points on 4-5 , 6 rebounds, 1 assist in 11 minutes
West is 8 points on 3-5 and 2-2 on FT, 4 rebounds, 1 assist in just 7 minutes (Is she healthy?)
Brown is 3 points on 0-5 (0-2) but 3-4 on FT, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 foul, 3 turnovers in 14 minutes
Crocker is 2 points on 1-2, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 2 fouls in 11 minutes
Style is 7 points on 3-6 (1-2), 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 fouls, 2 turnovers in 12 minutes
Chen is 2 points on 1-4, 0-2 on FT, 4 rebounds, 1 turnover in 10 minutes
Olsen did not shoot - 1 rebound, 1 assist 1 foul in 3 minutes
Richey is 0-1, in 3 minutes

38% for the half - 15/39
1-9 on threes
5-8 on free throws

Rebounds favor Cal as expected 34-12 (O: 16-4 D: 18-8)
Bears with 10 second chance points - 18 bench points - 28 in the paint
Only 4 fast break points
Largest lead was 15.

The game is going about as expected except that their star, Murphy, only played 7 minutes out of the initial 20 due to two quick fouls that she picked up. If she can stay on the court, this 12 point margin could close. Who is guarding 5-4 Chea? She has 14 of their 24 points...Per stats on-line, Cal missed 9 layups/putbacks in first half.
The Bears had sixteen offensive rebounds as compared to Vanguard's rebound total of 12. Cal will never play a shorter team than the Lions so they need to finish close in shots. Jaelyn Brown is 0-5, Leilani McIntosh is 0-5 & Chen Yue is 1-4 at halftime from the floor. The team misses Jazlin Green today.

GO BEARS!

Bears push lead to 51-35 with 2:18 to go in third and Vanguard calls time.

ncbears, thanks for the info. Despite the stats, how do the players "look" shooting? Lots of poor percentages, but are they near misses or ugly?

third ends with Bears up 59-40.
West has 13 points in 12 minutes! (also 7 rebounds)
Three point shooting - um, let's just forget there is a three point shot, shall we?

IssyBear said:

---

ncbears, thanks for the info. Despite the stats, how do the players "look" shooting? Lots of poor percentages, but are they near misses or ugly?

---

I have no idea how they look. I'm following on livestats.

It's 60-40 and Bears have 24 offensive rebounds to 4 for Vanguard.
Of course, you have to miss a shot to get an offensive rebound - for what that's worth.

ncbears said:

---

IssyBear said:

---

ncbears, thanks for the info. Despite the stats, how do the players "look" shooting? Lots of poor percentages, but are they near misses or ugly?

---

I have no idea how they look. I'm following on livestats.

---

You were doing such a good job, it sounded like you were at the game. Thanks again.

And Vanguard's star Murphy fouls out with 5 minutes to go - 5 points on 2-9 shooting in 17 minutes
Oops, Sorry. That was her fifth foul with 5 minutes to go.

And that's it. Bears win 79-55.

I have to learn how to paste a screenshot:
West and Styles with 15
Brown with 12
LS with 10
Chen with 8
SA with 7
McIntosh 6
Crocker 4
Olsen 2
and Richey did not score

31-72 for game - 43% (not great)
1-14 on threes - 7% (worrisome)
16-24 on free throws - 67% (room to improve)
16 assists
3 blocks (Chen, Mcintosh?, SA?)
6 steals (3 by McIntosh, 2 by Brown, 1 by Crocker)

Styles, West and Chen each with 10 rebounds. Except, Styles had 9 defensive, Chen had 7 offensive, and West split hers evenly!)
LS has 9 rebounds.

Brown and McIntosh played 29 minutes each.
SA 26 minutes, Styles 22, LS 21, Chen 20, Crocker 18 and West only 16.

MoragaBear said:

---

Perimeter scoring looks to be a real challenge this season. Today showed no differently.

---

"Real challenge" would seem to be an understatement.

Cal did a nice job of shutting down Vanguard's NAIA AA, Vanessa Murphy. She fouled out in 17 minutes with 5 points and 5 turnovers. The HM NAIA AA tiny (5-4) PG, Victoria Chea, scored 20 of the Lion's 55 points. She also turned the ball over 5x.

The rebounding margin of 62-21 was the largest that I can remember in a college bball game. Cal had 29 offensive boards alone.

Guess what-it won't be happening again anytime soon. Cal travels back east to play Harvard & #5 UConn next weekend. Both teams defeated Cal in Berkeley last season with Anigwe & Co.

Bears appear to lack consistent outside shooting while not defending the three strongly on defense. Harvard upset Cal in Berkeley with 13 treys, remember? The Bears might be able to be competitive vs the Crimson. The UConn encounter next Sunday will be at another level. The result could be humiliating. I hope that Geno calls off the dogs after three quarters...I have a strong feeling that Cal will struggle to score against the Huskies size, speed & athleticism...No more layups and offensive rebound easy baskets will be available against them.

GO BEARS!

Just back from the game. Unlike last season it looks like the Bears will play with some defensive intensity this season. They're going to need it. The two frosh guards -- McIntosh and Crocker -- looked okay though neither hit anything from long range. Lutje Schiplot, the Dutch forward, was impressive. Chen got a lot of minutes and her defense and rebounding are passable but on offense she's...uh, well let's just say as a 5th year senior she's still a work in progress. Cayton and freshman Jazleen Green did not suit up. I was also impressed with the Bears' ball movement. This is going to be a rough season until the cavalry arrives next year but based on this -- admittedly a very small sample size -- Charmin is doing a nice job with D and offensive motion.
Don't wait until next season, come out and support the Bears this year, they'll be giving 100 per cent.

Back from the game. We are better defensively and have a lot more team speed. we ran a full court press much better than the past. Only Chin Yue is slow.

We are not an outside shooting team. Could Styles be our best shooter out there? Figure Brown will come along. Haven't seen Green play so maybe she can help.

The Euro gill was there again wearing a Cal Shirt. Not that I know anything but I wondered if she might be from the Netherlands . And maybe she played with Schipholt.

We put a lot of pressure on the opposing guards. Could Styles be the most improved player on the team. Sara is good going to the hoop but her outside shot is missing.

We rebounded a lot of our own missed free throws which brought me back to the old days of Jennifer Brandon and that group who were sensational on the boards, especially missed free throws. Of course this team is short so don't put too much stock into it.

ncbears & S71, Murphy did not foul out. That foul with 5:10 left in the 4th quarter was her 4th foul. She was, however, as you said pretty ineffective.

Lots better ball movement this game, both with and without the ball. No one was standing around wondering what to do. I think we may surprise a team or two this year.

I agree with most posters that our defense looked better. We had a little trouble with screens and Chea's stepback shots but we applied a lot of pressure and didn't allow people to blow by us. Most of our players were not just bigger than theirs but also quicker.

I'd call our 3-point shooting (1-14) ineffective. I'm sure Jaelyn can (and will) do better but I don't know about anyone else. It's going to be a long season if we can't spread the floor better.

I was impressed with Sara, Leilani, and Evelien - all three showed more quickness and tenacity than I had expected.

The band appeared with a reasonably full complement ant the spirit groups provided 8 dancers and 2 flag wavers. Aside from those and the two teams I would estimate the attendance to have been around 200. I think I can safely describe that number as pathetic.

https://calbears.com/boxscore.aspx?id=26136&path=wbball

I think that after two exhibitions, freshman PF Evelien Lutje Shipholt has been the most efficient player for Cal. Based upon minutes played, she has been an excellent rebounder and scorer. Most of her rebounds have been of the offensive variety which has enabled her to score some easy baskets. Shipholt has scored double-digits each game and has been right around ten boards per game.

We'll have to see how she fares when the season starts for real next weekend. I noticed that CJ West has been given the least amount of minutes so far of the scholarship players plus she has not started either game. Is she recovering from an injury? She played well today.

GO BEARS!

GoBears635 said:

---

ncbears & S71, Murphy did not foul out. That foul with 5:10 left in the 4th quarter was her 4th foul. She was, however, as you said pretty ineffective.

Lots better ball movement this game, both with and without the ball. No one was standing around wondering what to do. I think we may surprise a team or two this year.

---

I was, as you could tell, confused, because livestats had Murphy with 5 fouls but she was still on the floor. I was confused because I thought players fouled out with five fouls - but wondered if I'd missed a rule change. So, thank you for clarifying that Murphy's foul was her fourth and not fifth.

After seeing the Vanguard game,

I am especially happy with the coaching, especially overall EFFORT and the defense!

I AM VERY ENCOURAGED.
.
The new young players (I feel uncomfortable calling WBB players "freshmen") are athletic and hopefully will develop the D1 offensive finishing skills on the break and in the half-court sets.

I really appreciate CJ West's presence more every season. Bears need big minutes from CJ.

Chen should have a role, off the bench, making her contribution on defense near the rim. Keep those hands high Chen! Move your feet! Feel the love of the Cal fans.

I am going to miss McKenzie Forbes's offense, her Dad's awesome Harlem Globetrotters leather jacket, and the joy she brought when she was on the floor. I'm sentimental.

So we won't beat Oregon, my goal would be to win more games than the San Francisco/Golden State Warriors (82 game NBA season.) Beat Stanfurd' at least once, that would be great too.

Team in transition, giving everything they have.







.

john1953 said:

---

The new young players (I feel uncomfortable calling WBB players "freshmen") are athletic and hopefully will develop the D1 offensive finishing skills on the break and in the half-court sets.

---

I call them freshies, a term Penina Davidson used.

Lelani had a few highlight-reel finishes, I'm looking forward to four years of those.

Shipholt quote, "A missed shot is an assist." per her presser.

Is this quote accurate? Doesn't make sense.

It is when they score off the O-board.

bearchamp said:

---

Is this quote accurate? Doesn't make sense.

---

Take out one of the "is an" and it makes more sense. I like her attitude. It does appear that she is looking for the offensive rebound. Her catch and put back on the air ball was impressive because the ball barely missed the rim and could have easily hit it. She doesn't play like a freshie.

Thanks for the assist. My bad all sorry but I got an assist and GATC scored 2!!