Bears spread it around, dominate on road
During the preseason, Cal women’s basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb said this season’s squad had a chance to be one of the most complete groups she’s ever had.
It took seven games, but the Bears finally illustrated her point expertly Saturday afternoon.
Cal played its most dominant defensive game of the season and got offensive contributions throughout the lineup in a 79-41 blasting of Santa Clara at the Leavey Center.
The No. 24 Bears (5-2) never trailed, led by as many as 43 points and set season bests in nearly every defensive category: points allowed (41), field goals allowed (13), defensive field-goal percentage (31.7), three-pointers allowed (one), defensive three-point percentage (12.5), assists allowed (10) and turnovers forced (22).
They held the Broncos’ leading active scorer, Morgan McGwire, to 0-of-7 shooting and five points in 28 minutes in the season’s best translation from practice preparation to game action.
“I call it: ‘Giving you the answers before taking the exam,’ ” Gottlieb said. “I don’t have your athleticism. I don’t have your ability out there. But I can help you by telling you what the other team is going to do. I think they’ve made a big step in understanding what we want to do and doing it.”
Cal converted the 22 turnovers into 36 points, but the Bears could have seemingly scored any way they wanted. They had two double-digit scorers, four with at least nine points, six with at least seven points, eight with at least five points and 11 with at least two points.
Kristine Anigwe led the way with 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting in 21 minutes. Santa Clara packed its zone inside the paint to try to limit the AllAmerica center, so the Bears capably lit it up from threepoint range.
Jaelyn Brown, who had 11 points, and Kianna Smith, who added nine, each went 3-for-6 from behind the arc. The Bears were 9-of-18 from distance through three quarters before sitting Anigwe, Asha Thomas and Mikayla Cowling for the fourth quarter and finishing 10-for-25.
“In Kristine, we have a player opponents are always going to game plan for, and we just want to be comfortable doing whatever we need to do to be successful. It was so in flow and rhythm today,” Gottlieb said. “… We have kids who can knock down shots. At some point, people are going to start looking at our stat sheet and say: ‘You can’t just guard Kristine, unless you want to give up open three-pointers.’ ”
This was the 34th meeting between the teams, but the programs hadn’t played outside of Berkeley since 1999, when the host Broncos beat the Bears 68-64. Cal took out every pain from that loss in extending its overall lead in the series to 27-7.
Cal ripped off a 16-0, gameopening run, a stretch during which it made 3 of 4 threepoint attempts and assisted on all five of its field goals. Santa Clara (2-5) didn’t get on the board until Tamia Braggs made a layup 6½ minutes into the game.
Cal had established a season high in forced turnovers (19) by the 2:03 mark of the third quarter and used that defense to spark an 8-0, quarter-ending run that extended its lead to 64-27. A hook shot by Analysia Styles with 2½ minutes remaining in the game extended the Bears’ lead to a gamehigh 77-34.
“We haven’t really made our mark this year, so this was a way to show people that we can really finish,” Anigwe said. “… We were playing basketball. Before, we were a very one-dimensional team. Now we can pop shots, we can screen-and-roll, we can get inside and we can go outside.”