Road Warriors
SAN DIEGO – The Bears are heading back to Berkeley with another win! The California women's basketball team earned its first road win of the season Thursday, with a 74-48 victory over San Diego State at Viejas Arena. The victory was the second in a row for the Golden Bears (2-2, 0-0 Pac-12), who handed the Aztecs (3-3, 0-0 Mountain West) their second home loss of the season.
Three different players scored in double-figures for the Golden Bears, with southern California natives Jaelyn Brown (18 points), Alaysia Styles (17 points), and CJ West (10 points) leading the way. Freshman Evelien Lutje Schipholt nearly notched her first collegiate double-double, finishing with nine points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
Brown led all scorers with a season-high 18 points and dished out a career-high five assists. The senior from Murrieta, California set a season-high and matched her career-best with nine rebounds. Styles, a San Diego native, set a new career-best with 17 points and added six rebounds.
Coming off its first win of the season on Sunday over UC Riverside, the Bears got off to a strong start on Thursday night, connecting on six of their first eight attempts from the floor. The Bears shot a season-high 47.7 percent (31-65) from the floor and dished out a season-high 19 assists.
Leading 20-15 after the first quarter, Styles and Brown combined for 12 of Cal's 18 points in the second quarter, as the Bears led 38-25 at the half.
Cal continued to add to its advantage throughout the second half, gaining valuable contributions from a multitude of players. Freshman Jazlen Green – who missed Cal's first two games of the season due to injury – scored seven points in her first road action of the year, going 3-for-6 from the floor and adding four rebounds and three assists. Fellow rookie Cailyn Crocker added five points while Lutje Schipholt led the Bears on the glass, grabbing seven offensive rebounds.
Cal dominated San Diego State on the glass, holding a 17-11 advantage in offensive rebounds and a 44-30 edge in overall rebounds. The Bears outscored the Aztecs, 23-4, on second-chance points and held a 15-4 edge on points off turnovers.
Defensively, Cal held the Aztecs to just 48 points, the fewest the Bears have allowed in any game this season.
The Bears return to Haas Pavilion on Sunday, hosting No. 20 Arkansas (5-0, 0-0 SEC) at 2 p.m. at Haas Pavilion. Arkansas is the second of 11 teams currently ranked in the AP Top 25 on Cal's schedule this season, and heads to Berkeley on the heels of a 91-60 victory over Belmont on Wednesday. Sunday's matchup will be the fourth meeting all-time between the Razorbacks and the Golden Bears, but the first since the 1986-87 season.
Arkansas is led by head coach Mike Neighbors, who is in his third season in Fayetteville after spending the previous four seasons as the head coach at Washington.
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