Cal holds off Hawaii for first postseason win since 2019
The Cal women weathered a big fourth-quarter push from Hawaii and pulled out a 65-60 win in a first-round game of the inaugural WBIT at Haas Pavilion on Thursday night.
It was the first postseason victory for fifth-year Cal head coach Charmin Smith and the Bears’ first since they won their NCAA Tournament opener under Lindsay Gottlieb in 2019.
Cal didn’t have a starter reach double figures in scoring, but Lulu Twidale came off the bench to score a game-high 20 points. In her previous four games, Twidale had scored a combined 19 points.
The Bears (19-14) led 4334 through three quarters, but Hawaii (20-11) went for 26 points in the final period — surpassing its point total from the first half (22).
Cal’s lead was trimmed to 62-60 on Imani Perez’s 3pointer with 45 seconds to play. The Bears’ Kemery Martin countered with a 3 with 18 seconds to go and Hawaii missed its final three shots to fall short.
“We’re just glad that we’re still playing at this point,” Smith said. “It’s surviving and advance, and we did that. It wasn’t our best basketball, but we made plays when we needed to.”
The Bears, the region’s No. 2 seed, will host No. 3 seed St. Joseph’s (27-5) in a second-round game Sunday. The Hawks beat Seton Hall 54-47 in their tourney opener.
Santa Clara 60, BYU 59: The Cougars’ Lauren Gustin missed a foul shot with 0.4 of a second to play and the host Broncos won a postseason game for the first time since 1993.
The victory was only the third for Santa Clara in 26 all-time meetings with BYU, but the second this season. This is the first time since 2016, when it played in the WNIT, that Santa Clara has reached the postseason.
Santa Clara (25-8) had taken the lead on a Tess Heal layup with four seconds to play. BYU’s Amari Whiting missed a potential game-tying layup, but Gustin corralled the rebound with less than a second left and was fouled by Lara Edmanson. After making her first free-throw try, Gustin — BYU’s leading scorer this season, but only a 45.1% shooter from the line — missed her second.
Heal scored a game-high 17 points and Edmanson 16 for the region No. 4-seed Broncos, who will travel to play at region top-seed Washington State on Sunday. WSU (19-14) beat Lamar 66-44 in its tourney opener.
“I thought our group fought and did everything they could to win,” Santa Clara head coach Bill Carr said. “I don’t think we at times played all that well, but we just found a way.”
Amari Whiting scored 14 points to lead BYU (16-17). Gustin finished with six points — the first time since the season opener she failed to reach double figures.