Bears Hold Off Boston College, 72-63

BERKELEY, CA - The Bears returned to Berkeley with hopes of shaking off the disappointment of their first back-to-back losses of the season after a tough road trip to Louisville and #3 Notre Dame and after a slow start, the home team got back on track with a 72-63 win over Boston College at Haas Pavilion.

Center Michelle Onyiah had a big game, leading the Bears with 21 points and 10 rebounds - her 7^th double-double of the season.

"i'm excited. I'm happy," Onyiah said with a smile. "Took a while, took five years. But happy to do with the girls, obviously, having a double-double, having some ice cream (her reward).”

Forward Marta Suarez pitched in 18 points and 9 rebounds in the win, though she also had 6 turnovers among Cal’s less-than-sterling 26 turnovers overall against BC’s scrappy defense.

"Happy to get 20 wins with this team on February 13.," head coach Charmin Smith said after the win. "Happy we got out of this with everyone healthy and available for Sunday. And that's about it.

“A win is better than a loss. We know that, and we needed this win...There's some movement, some shifting going around in the conference, and we just want to be playing our best so that we can set ourselves up for for success and a good seed in the ACC tournament, and hopefully a favorable seed in the NCAA Tournament. So we gotta keep working, keep getting better.”

It took some time for the Bears to get going and build up a solid lead over 13-14 (4-10) Boston College, with the Bears scoring only 22 points and trailing by 1 in the first 16 minutes while going just 1-for-10 from the perimeter to start until 3-point specialists Ionna Krimili and Lulu Twidale hit back-to-back treys to propel the Bears to a 36-25 halftime lead.

Despite the early struggles from the perimeter, the Bears were strong inside in the first half, with Onyiah leading the way with 10 points and 4 rebounds, though the strong start was mitigated by 4 early turnovers by the senior center. Onyiah also passed the career 1,000 point mark in the opening half of the win.

The second half saw the Bears struggle to build the momentum, though Onyiah and Suarez continued to convert inside. The Bears ended the quarter just 4-of-20 from behind the arc and entered the final stanza up 51-41. They’d finish the game just 5-for-24 from behind the arc.

BC made a run early in the fourth quarter, partially based on a questionable charge that took a Kayla Williams bucket off the board and an obvious flop that earned BC a pair of points from the line as the Eagles narrowed the Bears’ lead to 5 to start the fourth quarter on a Waggoner bucket and a Todd 3.

Krimili came back with a big 3 to stem the tide and after a pair of Todd free throws, Onyiah answered with 5 straight points to extend the lead to 11 but BC answered right back with 5 straight points of their own to narrow the Bears’ lead to 6 at 59-53 with 5:36 remaining after a pair of Berry free throws and a Sidberry trey.

After the Bears got it back to double digits and 3 points a piece from Krimili and Williams, BC again fought back to narrow the Bears’ lead to 5 with 2:03 remaining on a Sidbury free throw and four points from Todd but the Bears pulled away during crunch time to secure the too close for comfort win. 

Cal moves to 20-6 (8-5) with the win and will next be back in action Sunday at 3 vs Syracuse at Haas Pavilion.