Cal Coasts To Win Over Cal Poly

The California women’s basketball team wrapped up nonconference play with a dominating 91-50 win over visiting Cal Poly at Haas Pavilion on Sunday afternoon. The Golden Bears (9-5, 0-1 ACC) were led by Lulu Twidale’s five 3-pointers which moved her into sole possession of third place on Cal’s all-time career triples list and marked her fifth career game with at least five triples. Cal forced a season-high 23 turnovers against the Mustangs (2-10, 0-2 Big West) and had a season-high 25 assists.

Naya Ojukwu had her best offensive showing of the season with 16 points on 7-of-8 from the field to go along with five rebounds and two blocks. Twidale and Gisella Maul both tied their career highs with six assists each. The win marked Cal’s 19th-straight regular season nonconference win at home dating back to the 2023-24 season. The 91 points scored marked the second-most this season after scoring 92 against San Jose State in early December.

Ojukwu converted a 3-point play early in the first quarter to power a 7-0 Cal run and the Bears held the Mustangs scoreless for over four minutes until they hit a free throw at the 1:37 mark. Cal Poly hit just one bucket over the last five minutes and Twidale nailed a triple with five seconds left to put Cal up 15-10 heading into the second quarter.

A trio of 3-point plays (two from Maul and one from Sakima Walker) put Cal up 28-20 midway through the second quarter. Twidale hit her third triple of the game and the Bears went into the break ahead 34-22.

Cal used a 6-0 run early in the third quarter to go up by 18 at the 7:09 mark. Twidale would hit her fourth triple of the game to give the Bears their largest lead up to that point at 50-30 with 4:14 to go. Cal closed the game on a 20-5 run over the last five minutes. 

A number of role players saw extensive minutes, and Cal’s bench contributed a season-high 41 points and the Bears scored a season-high 50 points in the paint.

“I thought we had a good second half just challenging our team to play with energy and play to a certain standard every minute,” Cal head coach Charmin Smith said.  “We did some good things and were able to put together a good 40 minutes. I think everybody's just working so hard. They bust their butts in practice all the time, trying to make us better, trying to make themselves better. So anytime we can have opportunities to go deep in the bench and give people more opportunities we want to take advantage of it. I thought they did extremely well. We scored 30 points in the fourth quarter, so I thought the bench was great.”

Cal Poly was led by Vanessa McManus’ 15 points.

NEXT UP

Cal hits the road to resume ACC conference play taking on North Carolina on Thursday at 9 a.m. PT.