No. 22 Cal Earns Historic Sweep At Stanford

STANFORD, Calif. (AP) Kayla Williams scored 18 points, Ioanna Krimili added 17 and No. 22 California held on to beat Stanford 75-72 on Thursday night for the Golden Bears' first season sweep of the Cardinal in 39 years. The win also marked the Golden Bears' first win at Maples Pavilion since the 2014-15 season and was Stanford's only second loss at home this season. 

Krimili's basket to open the fourth quarter had the Bears up 15 but Stanford scored the next 10 to cut the deficit to 58-53 with 5 1/2 minutes to go. Nunu Agara had consecutive 3s to cut it to 73-71 with 46.3 seconds left.

Krimili made a driving layup with 18.7 seconds left to make it 75-71. Agara was fouled with 13.8 seconds to go, made the first free throw, missed the second and grabbed the loose rebound. She missed a 3 but Chloe Clardy got the rebound at 4.8 seconds but after a timeout Stanford could not get off a last shot.

Marta Suarez scored 13 points for Cal (18-3, 6-2 Atlantic Coast Conference), which hadn't won at Stanford in 10 years. The Bears, who had lost 12 straight in the series, won the first meeting by 20 after hitting a program-record 18 3-pointers.

Clardy had a career-high 22 points for Stanford (10-9, 2-6) and Agara added 19. The Cardinal lead the series 81-23 and had won 12 straight coming into the season.

Cal led 41-31 at halftime after shooting 61%, despite going 2 of 10 from 3-point range.

The lead reached 19 with four minutes to go in the third but Cal made just 2 of 14 shots before making its last three and had eight turnovers.

“It’s a special group and I’m really proud of how we fought and held on through a lot of adversity,” Cal head coach Charmin Smith said. “We have a lot of respect for this program. This is special for me. We knew it wasn’t going to be 18 threes like it was at Haas. To be able to hold on and fight through a number of mistakes to get the win, I’m just really proud of this team.”

No. 13 North Carolina is at Cal on Jan. 30, when Pittsburgh visits Stanford.