Bears Take Down #21 NC State 78-71 in 2nd Top-25 Victory of the Season

BERKELEY - The Bears continued their impressive season with their second Top-25 victory of the year, fending off the 21st-ranked NC State Wolfpack for a 78-71 victory in front of 1,874 excited fans at Haas Pavilion.

The Bears were led by forward Marta Suarez with 17 points and 12 rebounds along with 15 a piece from center Michelle Onyiah (10 rebounds), point guard Kayla Williams (6 assists) and guard Ioanna Krimili. Guard Lulu Twidale pitched in 11 points, as well, to give the starting five all double-digit points in the win.

"I'm really proud of our team," head coach Charmin Smith said after the game. I think this is a great program win. I think this is one of the biggest wins for Cal basketball in some time. NC State is a really good team. You know, those guards have been to a Final Four and just really proud of how we showed up and stayed together and weathered the storm and came up with a with a really good win.”

The Wolfpack, a Final 4 participant last season, came into the game at 11-3 and on a seven-game winning streak, starting 2025 with a 91-52 win over Boston College to start 3-0 in ACC play and were one of five schools in the ACC to start 3-0 in league play. The game marked the first-ever meeting between the two programs was the first Top 25 matchup at Haas Pavilion since Dec. 22, 2018 (#14 Cal vs #1 UConn).

"You gotta start by giving Cal a lot of credit," NC State head coach Wes Moore said after the game. I mean, they're a very explosive offensive team. We knew that coming in, four starters shoot over 40% from three. And I thought their post player (Onyiah) really did a nice job for them tonight as well. So they had a great balanced attack, five people in scoring double figures, but we have got to do a better job."

The Bears got out of the gate fast, scoring the first five points on a Krimili jumper and a Twidale 3 and held an early 7-point lead after a Suarez trey pushed the lead to 12-5 4:31 into the game.

NC State fought back, taking the lead themselves, closing the quarter with a 10-0 run to go up 20-14 at the break.

The Bears came back strong in the second stanza, going on an impressive 16-0 run fueled by consecutive treys from Krimili and three by Suarez to go up 30-22 with 5:32 left in the half. The Bears eventually settled for a 6-point halftime lead on a Williams 3 to end the half up 39-33.

The third quarter saw the Wolfpack whittle down the Bears’ lead, eventually tying the game at 52 on a Zoe Brooks layup with 2:09 left in the quarter but the Bears responded with an 8-0 run to close out the quarter on a pair of threes from Twidale and Krimili and a final bucket from Onyiah to head into the fourth quarter up 60-52.

NC State would not go down easily, cutting the Cal lead down to 4 on a Tilda Trygger 3 with 25 seconds remaining, 75-71, but three final free throws from Suarez and Twidale closed out the impressive win. 

NC State was led by guard Aziaha James with 21, forward Tilda Trygger with 19 points and 10 rebounds and guard Zoe Brooks with 14 points in the loss.

The Bears moved to 15-2 (3-1) on the season while NC State falls to 11-4 (3-1) with their first conference loss.