Gottlieb’s 200th proves sweet
Cal women’s head coach Lindsay Gottlieb was probably going to have a pretty special night, anyway.
Her team then made sure she’d never forget Thursday.
The 25th-ranked Bears basically taped a how-to video on offensive efficiency while beating San Diego 89-64 at Haas Pavilion as Gottlieb celebrated her 200th career victory.
“The number of wins is fun, but mostly, the ride is about the people you do it with,” Gottlieb said. “The way they played today I was really proud of.”
Cal (6-2) has responded to its lone home loss of the season by winning three straight by an average of 27.7 points per game, and the Bears might have been at their overall best against San Diego.
Playing against a pressure defense that leads the West Coast Conference in limiting opponents’ scoring (60.4 points per game) and allows opponents to shoot only 40.8 percent from the floor, Cal had 61 points in the first three quarters and finished the game shooting 69.1 percent from the field.
“What we’re learning is: Whatever teams throw at us, we have enough,” Gottlieb said. “We are enough.”
The Bears were on pace to break the school’s all-time shooting mark (69.3 percent) until they emptied the bench in the game’s closing 2½ minutes, but that didn’t take any gloss off Gottlieb’s achievement. She moved to 200-106 in her career, including 144-67 in Berkeley, and the Bears threw a pretty good party.
The Toreros (5-4) hadn’t lost by double digits all season and had two one-point losses before playing the Bears, who led wire to wire and by as many as 27 points. Cal has won 20 of its past 21 games against WCC opponents, and that success won’t come to an end anytime soon if Kristine Anigwe keeps playing this efficiently.
The junior center had 26 points on 11-for-14 shooting in 30 minutes, continuing an extremely proficient streak. Anigwe is shooting 83.3 percent from the floor and averaging 22.7 points in 24.7 minutes during the past three games.
“Coming off the injury, I was kind of nervous getting back on the floor,” said Anigwe, who missed about two weeks with a preseason knee injury. “But I feel very comfortable playing with this group. There’s just a longing to play at a very high rate and with efficiency.”
On top of Cal’s hot shooting, which was helped by Asha Thomas (13 points on 3-for-4 three-point shooting) and Penina Davidson (13 points on 6-for-7 shooting from the floor), the Bears continued to move the ball well. They dished out 23 assists to move to 6-0 when recording at least 20.
In the all-around victory, Cal also outrebounded San Diego 29-24. The Toreros, who were also on the other side of Gottlieb’s first career victory, entered the game leading the WCC with a plus-10.3 rebounding margin.
“Someone tell Tara (VanDerveer). Eight hundred more, and I got her,” Gottlieb joked in reference to Stanford’s head coach, who has more than 1,000 career victories.