Anigwe does it all as Bears prevail
When Lindsay Gottlieb finally got a chance to sit down after Cal’s 80-79 victory over Houston on Tuesday night, the head coach said she needed a glass of wine.
It’s a wonder Kristine Anigwe didn’t hop up and pop a bottle.
She seemingly did everything else for the No. 24 Bears in their season-opening win, grabbing 13 rebounds and scoring 37 points on 13-for-20 shooting from the floor and 11-for-11 shooting from the foul line.
“Kristine was a beast and showed why she’s in the conversation as one of the best players in the country,” Gottlieb said. “… The weird thing is: That’s kind of what we expect her to do. You sort of see exceptional things become ordinary.”
Anigwe was every bit of exceptional during a 6½-minute stretch of the third quarter, when she scored 21 of Cal’s 23 points and turned a four-point deficit into a nine-point lead. The outburst marked the most points in any quarter ever by a Cal player.
Her 11th career 30point game and 42nd career double-double helped stave off a Houston squad that returned all five starters from a 20-win team that went to the postseason for the first time since 2011.
Senior point guard Asha Thomas added 10 points, seven assists and six rebounds for Cal, junior forward Jaelyn Brown had 10 points and eight rebounds, and sophomore guard Kianna Smith held Jasmyne Harris to 5-for-14 shooting.
“We didn’t take the easy path to start the season, and I’m really glad for that,” Gottlieb said. “I think we made things tougher on ourselves at times, but I loved the feel of the team the entire game. Good or bad, they were completely locked in and with me.”
Houston went ahead 23-19 on an Angela Harris layup at the 6:06 mark of the second quarter, but the story was on the other end of the court, where Cal was 0-for-10 from three-point range and uncharacteristically had 11 turnovers to one assist.
Anigwe took over the game in the third quarter to put the Bears ahead 53-44, and Recee Caldwell finally made a three-pointer with 1:15 on the third-quarter clock to push the lead to 56-44.
Cal still had a 10-point advantage with less than three minutes remaining, but Houston’s Harris, who averaged 19 points per game last season, scored five points during an 8-1 run that cut the Bears’ lead to 74-71 with 1:59 remaining.
Harris made three free-throw tries with 11 seconds left to trim Houston’s deficit to 78-77, but Brown made a two foul shots with 10.3 ticks remaining.
Harris had a decent look at what would have been a tying three-pointer, but it was off the mark. Tatyana Hill’s putback just before the buzzer didn’t alter the result, only the margin.