BERKELEY – The Cal women's basketball team (1-0) had a dominant performance in its 89-56 season opening win over Cal State Bakersfield (0-1) at Haas Pavilion on Monday night. The Bears used a strong defensive effort holding the Roadrunners to just 30.3 percent shooting from the field and 31.6 percent from deep to come away with the wire-to-wire victory. Every Bear who saw action got into the scoring column.
"I'm really excited about this group," Cal head coach Charmin Smith said. "We were able to give a lot of people a lot of good minutes and I thought it was a good start to our season."
Fifth-year guard Leilani McIntosh's game-high five assists moved her up ninth on Cal's all-time career assists list bringing her career total to 387. Several career-highs were recorded or tied as junior guard Kemery Martin and junior forward Marta Suarez set career highs in blocks (4) and points (14) respectively, while senior forward McKayla Williams tied a career-high with eight rebounds. The Bears were paced by graduate guard Ioanna Krimili's 18 points, which included 3-of-6 from beyond the arc.
In the first quarter, Cal held a 15-12 lead before going on a 10-0 run to close the quarter highlighted by a 3-pointer by Krimili at the buzzer to give the Bears a 23-12 lead going into the second.
The Roadrunners opened the second quarter with six quick points which were answered by back-to-back 3-pointers from Krimili. Cal went on to hold Cal State Bakersfield scoreless (0-11) from the field over the last six minutes of the quarter to go into the break with a 40-23 lead.
Cal opened the second half on a 14-3 run capped off by a Martín 3-pointer midway through the third quarter to give the Bears a 54-26 lead. Cal's largest lead of 36 came on senior forward Michelle Onyiah's layup with 2:32 to go in the game.
The Roadrunners were led by Jordan Olivares who recorded 10 points and seven rebounds.
The Bears stay at Haas Pavilion to host Santa Clara on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. The game will be streamed on the Cal Live Stream.
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This is a GOOD team. They look to me to be a bit more naturally "athletic" than some of the past teams. Ball distribution was impressive, and they hustle on the defensive side.
The new faces are impressive. And I like our bench a lot! I can not wait to see what these young ladies accomplish this year.
BTW, whoever did the play by play on the stream., I thought, did a really good job. I hope they keep him for the rest of the Cal streams.
fan enthusiasm is okay but keep in mind the competition. The 1st and 2nd (bench) team will be up against better teams soon. Make your assessment after they start competing with ranked programs.
The only weakness is rebounding and the coach won't play Ila Lane (9 minutes). Lane had good games against last night's opponent and tomorrow nights. Also, she also faced Cal Poly SLO, our next opponent, twice last season.
Hopefully, Lane is recovering from an injury and is out of shape. This must be the reason. She knows how to roll to the basket and get open for an entry pass in position to score or get fouled. In nine minutes, she went 3 for 5 within 10-12 feet of the basket.
The only weakness is rebounding and the coach won't play Ila Lane (9 minutes). Lane had good games against last night's opponent and tomorrow nights. Also, she also faced Cal Poly SLO, our next opponent, twice last season.
Hopefully, Lane is recovering from an injury and is out of shape. This must be the reason. She knows how to roll to the basket and get open for an entry pass in position to score or get fouled. In nine minutes, she went 3 for 5 within 10-12 feet of the basket.
You don't know either of those things.
In basketball, it's all about match-ups. Thought you knew that. Bakersfield had quick guards and played four of them most of the game.
The only weakness is rebounding and the coach won't play Ila Lane (9 minutes). Lane had good games against last night's opponent and tomorrow nights. Also, she also faced Cal Poly SLO, our next opponent, twice last season.
Hopefully, Lane is recovering from an injury and is out of shape. This must be the reason. She knows how to roll to the basket and get open for an entry pass in position to score or get fouled. In nine minutes, she went 3 for 5 within 10-12 feet of the basket.
You don't know either of those things.
In basketball, it's all about match-ups. Thought you knew that. Bakersfield had quick guards and played four of them most of the game.
Match-ups work both ways. When another team has mostly small players, you may want to overpower them with bigger people - blocks and easy baskets.. But last night in a first game against a lower level team, there was no need for any particular strategy.
