Bears fall, land on NCAA bubble
SEATTLE — After losing to Pac-12 regular-season champion Oregon State for the second time in less than a week, the Cal women’s basketball team finds itself precariously perched atop the postseason bubble.
The Bears made several runs, but couldn’t overcome a 16-point first-half deficit and dropped a 65-49 decision to the top-seeded Beavers in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 tournament Friday.
Kristine Anigwe, who had 34 points in the Bears’ opening win over USC on Thursday, had 26 points for eighth-seeded Cal, which awaits the NCAA Tournament selection show on March 13.
The Bears finished with a 19-13 record after winning their first 13 games. They went 6-12 in conference play.
“We’ve been pretty transparent with what’s at stake the last couple weeks,” Cal coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “So I talked about it. I said, we’re going to be in a postseason tournament, and I think we deserve to be in the NCAA Tournament.”
Sydney Wiese had 26 points and Mikayla Pivec added 17 for Oregon State (28-3), which won the Pac-12 regular-season title to earn the top seed. The Beavers will face No. 4 seed UCLA, an 77-68 winner over fifthseeded Arizona State, in Saturday night’s semifinals.
The Beavers’ recipe for success was similar to their 71-56 victory over Cal on Sunday in the regular-season finale, when they led 24-12 after one quarter, withstood a second-quarter run, and then regained control in the second half.
This time, Cal trimmed the 16-point deficit to four midway through the second quarter, but once again saw Oregon State build on its halftime lead.
“I loved the resilience that this team played with,” Oregon State coach Scott Rueck said. “I thought they started the game in an incredible way with Syd starting it off scoring for us, and then every time they made a run at us, we made the plays to keep them at bay.”
The Beavers scored the final five points of the first half to extend their lead to 33-24, and then pushed it to 50-34 after three quarters. Anigwe’s jumper from the lane brought Cal within 55-47 with 4:05 left, but the Bears failed to score again until the closing seconds.
Oregon State was on the verge of blowing it open early, going in front 23-7 when Wiese opened the second quarter with three free throws on a foul beyond the arc.
Asha Thomas connected on a three-pointer — Cal’s first field goal by someone other than Anigwe — to trigger a 12-point run that brought the Bears within 23-19.
The Bears made just 2 of 14 first-quarter field-goal attempts as Oregon State took a 20-7 lead into the second period.
Wiese had seven points to fuel a nine-point run to open the game. Anigwe, who had all seven of Cal’s first-quarter points, cut the lead to 13-7. The Beavers closed the period with seven consecutive points as the Bears went the final 5:36 without a field goal.
Now, all the Bears can do is wait and hope.
“We are going to be on pins and needles, but at the end of the day, we’re going to go back, practice and whatever happens on the selection show, it happens,” said senior Courtney Range. “And, we get our name called, then we’re going to prepare for whoever we’re playing and if not, we’re going to prepare for the NIT.”