BERKELEY – The Cal women's basketball team got the 2021-22 season off to a tremendous start thanks to a 90-71 win over visiting Sacramento State on Tuesday night at Haas Pavilion. The Bears (1-0) led for over 38 minutes but were able to pull away late thanks to a tremendous fourth quarter shooting display.
Jayda Curry led the Golden Bears with a team-high 23 points. She was joined in double figures by Cailyn Crocker with 22, Evelien Lutje Schipholt added 20, and Jadyn Bush had 13. Lutje Schipholt matched her career-high scored against USF last year on Dec. 10, she also grabbed 11 rebounds for a double-double.
Offensively, the Bears owned the paint, scoring 52 of their 90 points inside the key. One area the Hornets had the advantage was in rebounds – where they finished with a 35-30 edge. However, that could be attributed to the fact that the Bears rarely missed. Cal shot 55.1 percent from the field going 38-for-69. It is the first time since Feb. 2, 2020 that Cal has shot better than 50.0 percent from the field. In the fourth quarter alone, the Bears connected on 80 percent of their attempts, going 12-for-15 from the floor.
Sacramento State (0-1) was led by Lianna Tillman's game-high 27 points. Summer Menke added 21 and Isnelle Natabou had 13.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Bears scored the opening bucket of the contest on a layup by Lutje Schipholt 9:13 in the first quarter. From there the Bears never looked back. A 13-2 run late in the same period gave the Bears all the cushion they needed.
Sacramento State cut the Bears lead to as little as six points several times throughout the evening, the last coming at the 7:17 mark in the fourth quarter when Tillman scored two in the paint. From there, the Bears put the game on ice thanks to an 18-3 run late in game.
A pull up jumper in the paint by Curry was the dagger as the Bears went up 84-63 with 2:02 to play.
UP NEXT
On Saturday the Bears will travel across the bay to take on San Francisco at the Chase Center, home of the Golden State Warriors. The Dons and Bears are slated to tipoff at 2:30 p.m. Saturday's contest will be streamed online via the WCC Network.
