The California women’s basketball team opened the game on an 11-0 run and didn’t look back for its most dominant victory of the season in a 92-42 win over San Jose State at Haas Pavilion on Sunday afternoon. The win marked the Golden Bears’ (7-3) third straight over the Spartans (0-8) and their 17th straight nonconference victory at home dating back to the 2023-24 season.
The 50-point margin of victory was Cal’s fifth largest since the 1981-82 season. Prior to last season, the Bears last had a 50-point win on Dec. 30, 2015 against Cal State Northridge. Cal grabbed 55 rebounds, including 22 on the offensive end, both season highs. The 55 boards were the most in a game since the Bears brought down 58 against Sacramento State on Dec. 8, 2016.
Sakima Walker started the game shooting 4-for-4 on her way to her second-career double-double as she finished with 16 points (8-of-12) and 11 rebounds. Naya Ojukwu added 19 points in just 16 minutes off the bench and Lulu Twidale added a season-high 20 points for her ninth 20-point game of her career.
Walker scored six of the Bears’ first 11 points to open the game and the Spartans didn’t score their first basket until the 5:32 mark in the first quarter. The Bears went up 16-2 after Puff Morris raced down the court and whipped a pass to Mjracle Sheppard on the wing for a 3-pointer. Cal held San Jose State to just two field goals in the quarter and went into the second quarter up 20-4.
Back-to-back triples from Morris and Taylor Barnes in the second quarter put Cal up 29-10 and Twidale gave the Bears their biggest lead of the game up to that point at 39-12 after hitting her first triple at the 3:43 mark.
A trio of triples from Twidale, Barnes and Gisella Maul powered a 15-2 run late in the third quarter to erase any chance of a San Jose State comeback and the Bears went up 73-28 heading into the final frame. Walker grabbed her 10th rebound on Cal’s last possession of the quarter to secure the double-double.
A number of Bears saw extended playing time in the lopsided win highlighted by freshman Grace McCallop who had her best outing of the season finishing with seven points and a team-high four steals.
“I’m really proud of how we came out today because we weren’t please with our last two performances and wanted to be better,” Cal head coach Charmin Smith said. “We set some goals for the team. We wanted to make San Jose State call a timeout early on. We wanted to have 20 assists and wanted to score over 75 points for the game. We wanted to hold them below 20 points in the paint. We did all of those things. I felt a lot of intention from our team in trying to be better. We know we have a long way to go but this was a step in the right direction.”
San Jose State was led by Katarina Anderson who had 10 points and Amira Brown who grabbed seven rebounds.
NEXT UP
Cal stays home to host Idaho on Wednesday at 7 p.m. PT.
