Anigwe leaves, then Bears fall
Kristine Anigwe was supposed to address the crowd pregame, but she got stage fright and sprinted away from midcourt as teammate K.C. Waters came to rescue the microphone.
In the fourth quarter, there was no one there to make a similar rescue for the Cal sophomore forward.
After the All-America candidate fouled out with 3:47 remaining, No. 18 Arizona State went on a 7-0 run to pull away to a 54-45 victory over Cal on Friday night at Haas Pavilion.
The Bears (14-5, 2-5 Pac-12) have lost five of their past six games, including a double-overtime heartbreaker to Arizona State on Jan. 1. The Sun Devils (14-4, 5-2) have won five of their past six games, losing only to No. 8 Washington during the span.
The game was tied 42-42 when Anigwe fouled out, and the Sun Devils, who hadn’t led by more than three points, took advantage. Without the Pac-12’s second-leading scorer, Cal had one field goal after Anigwe departed.
Anigwe scored a career-low eight points on 3-of-8 shooting, but she did have 15 rebounds and three blocked shots. It was just the second time in the sophomore forward’s 50-game career that she didn’t score in double figures, the other being a nine-point effort against Washington last Jan. 31.
Cal got 13 points from Asha Thomas, eight from Courtney Range and seven from Mikayla Cowling on a night during which the Bears didn’t break 40 percent from the floor.
Arizona State leads the conference in scoring defense and three-point defense, and the Sun Devils showed why against Cal. They also had three players who scored in double figures: Robbi Ryan (14 points), Sophie Brunner (14 points, 10 rebounds) and Quinn Dornstauder (12 points, eight rebounds).
After opening the game 1-of-8 from the floor with two turnovers, Arizona State righted itself to go on a 7-2 run to take a 9-8 lead with 43 seconds left in the first quarter. Range’s buzzer-beating runner gave her a quarter-high six points and regained the lead for the Bears.
There were four lead changes and three ties during a dizzying second quarter. Cal closed the frame on a 6-0 burst, including a Cowling layup, to go into the break with a 24-20 lead. Cowling sat with foul trouble for six minutes, the first time she’s come out of a game since Jan. 1.
The Bears held the Sun Devils without a field goal for a seven-minute stretch over the second and third quarters, and Cal extended its lead to 27-21 on a Thomas three-pointer with 9:06 left in the third.
The Bears survived a one-minute stretch with Anigwe sitting in foul trouble and were ahead 35-30 with fewer than three minutes remaining in the third quarter. But Arizona State closed the quarter on a 6-0 burst to take its first lead of the second half.
Neither team led by more than three points in the first 6½ minutes of the fourth quarter, but Anigwe fouled out, leading to the Sun Devils’ game-deciding run.