Last-second loss cools hot start by Bears

No. 20 Cal’s season, which got off to the best start in program history, is suddenly trending the wrong direction.

The Bears left the door open in the closing minutes of a competitive game with Oregon on Sunday afternoon, and Sabrina Ionescu’s buzzerbeating three-pointer allowed the Ducks to escape with a 69-66 victory at Haas Pavilion.

Kristine Anigwe’s putback gave Cal a 60-59 lead with two minutes to play, but the Bears missed 4 of 10 free-throw attempts in the final 1½ minutes to give Oregon a chance. Cal was ahead 66-61 before Maite Cazorla made a three-pointer, stole the inbound pass while Cal head coach Lindsay Gottlieb was desperately calling for a timeout and hit a layup to tie it with 11 seconds left.

After Cal point guard Asha Thomas missed two free-throw tries with four seconds remaining, Ionescu raced the length of the court and hit the game-winner.

“We’re devastated. I’ve got a locker room full of devastated kids. I’m devastated,” Gottlieb said. “… We’re better than losing three in a row. We’re better than losing on our home court, so we’re going to let this one hurt for a while.”

The Bears (13-3, 1-3 Pac-12) have lost three straight and allowed the Ducks (12-5, 1-3) to snap their three-game skid.

All this on a day that should have been a celebration for Anigwe. The Cal sophomore had 20 points to become the quickest player to reach 1,000 career points in the program’s history.

She reached the milestone in 47 games, becoming the 24th player in Division I history to need so few games. She has scored double digits in all but one game, a ninepoint effort against Washington on Jan. 31.

“You can win or lose a game in 10 seconds, and we lost, and it hurts,” Anigwe said. “… We’re going to try to be better, try to play better.”

Mikayla Cowling added 16 points and four assists for Cal, and Penina Davidson had 13 points, six rebounds and five assists.

Lexi Bando led the way for Oregon with 17 points on 5-for-8 threepoint shooting, Ruthy Hebard added 13 points and 10 rebounds, and Ionescu, a Walnut Creek native who went to Miramonte High and was The Chronicle’s two-time Metro Player of the Year, had 13 points, eight rebounds and six assists in just her second game back from a broken thumb on her shooting hand.

Cal forced Oregon into missing its first seven field-goal attempts in the second quarter, and the Bears converted that into some easy offense. They opened the frame on a 10-2 run to take a 23-16 lead at the 5:53 mark.

Anigwe went to the bench because of foul trouble with about 2½ minutes remaining in the first half. The Ducks promptly went on a 7-1 run and had the game tied until Cowling nailed a buzzer-beater to send Cal into the locker room with a 32-30 lead.

There were three lead changes in the third quarter’s opening six minutes, with the third one sparking an Oregon spurt. With Anigwe on the bench in foul trouble again, the Ducks used a 6-0 run to take a 43-38 advantage with five minutes left in the third.

Oregon extended its lead to as many as nine points in the final two minutes of the third quarter, and it still led 54-50 when Anigwe reentered the game with 8:05 on the fourth-quarter clock. Two and a half minutes later, Cal took a 57-56 lead and set the stage for an entertaining ending.

Gottlieb opted for another word: “chaotic.”