Cal Basketball Comes Up Short vs UNC, 65-52

The Tarheels' aggressive on-ball defense proves to be too much for Cal

At this point in the season, every game feels like the most important game as the Cal Women’s Basketball Team continues to climb in the conference standings and national rankings. A home win against the 15th-ranked North Carolina Tarheels would solidify Cal’s placement in the top tier of the conference. Nick’s UNC preview mentioned that this game will boil down to Cal’s offense versus North Carolina’s defense. UNC’s defense allows 54.9 points per game, Cal averaging 75.4 points per game. With a final score of UNC 65-52 over Cal, on this night the defense reigned supreme.

Cal started out slowly. UNC ran back-to-back high screens where Cal did not properly switch, resulting in easy shots for the Tarheels. The Bears were making a concerted effort to get the Ball to Michelle Onyiah down low, using the threat of an outside shot as a decoy. Several times Cal’s shooters faked the shot, then drove and have an easy handoff to Onyiah who finished with a short shot. She finished the first quarter with 10 points on a perfect 5-for-5 shooting. On the negative side, Cal had 4 turnovers early on and were disjointed with the ball. Besided Onyiah, the rest of the Bears were a combined 1-of-8 shooting, including 0-for-4 on 3-point shots. The Tarheels led 16-12 after the first quarter.

The first two 3-pointers for Cal came from Ioanna Krimili early in the quarter. UNC had pushed the lead up to 6 before Cal went on a 6-0 run to tie it at 26-all. UNC responded with a 7-0 run to end the quarter to take a 33-26 lead into halftime. The Tarheels locked down the interior this period, with grad student Forward Alyssa Ustby excelling in 1-on-1 defense and limiting Cal to 2-of-6 on interior shooting. Krimili’s 8 points and Onyiah’s 10 points were carrying Cal, while UNC was more balanced with six players scoring between 4 and 7 points.

UNC pushed the lead up to 11 early in the third quarter before Cal responded with a fiery 8-2 run highlighted by a Krimili long three and a nice pick-and-roll layup for Michelle Onyiah off a Krimili assist. The crowd was loud and the Bears were energized, forcing UNC to call a timeout while leading 39-34.

The Bears scored the first 4 points out of the timeout to close to within a point. UNC held steady and maintained a small lead through the rest of the quarter. With under a minute left and UNC leading 47-43, UNC’s Alyssa Gatsby was called for an intentional foul after elbowing Marta Suarez in the throat during a free throw. Cal had a chance to end the quarter with the lead, but Ioanna Krimili hit only 1-of-2 free throws, and Cal could not get a good shot off at the end. Going into the fourth quarter, UNC led 47-45.

The referees were whistle prone on both ends of the floor. Marta Suarez, Michelle Onyiah and Jayda Noble all had 4 fouls by the 6-minute mark in the game. UNC was able to push the lead out to 52-45. Onyiah came back into the game before injuring what appeared to be her left hamstring* with 3 minutes left and exiting to the trainers tent.

The rest of the game belonged to the Tarheels. Cal was held to 7 total points in the quarter on 2-of-12 shooting, and UNC was able to push the lead up to 14. UNC shot 50% on 6-of-12 shooting, and outrebounded the Bears 11-to-7 during the final period, en route to the 65-52 victory.

The Bears were led by Ioanna Krimili’s 20 points and Michelle Onyiah’s 14. UNC’s lockdown on-ball defense limited Cal to 37% shooting, with only 29% from three-point range. UNC G Reniya Kelly lead the Tarheels with 16 points, most off of dribble penetration and short-range shots.

Game Notes

• In her postgame comments, UNC coach Courtney Banghart indicated the Tarheels chose to focus on man-to-man defense with no switching. She described Cal’s offense as ‘action into other action’ and focused on playing straight up man defense to not allow open shooting.

• UNC’s excellent execution on aggressive individual defense was the difference. Much of Cal’s usual open looks come as a result of defense collapsing or lapses on switching with Cal’s continual motion, providing for open shots. Cal took advantage of UNC’s defense collapsing on the driver in the first quarter, with Onyiah’s 10 points. Once UNC locked down on individual defense from the second quarter onward, Cal’s offense was stymied.

• Marta Suarez was frustrated by UNC all night long. She finished with 8 points on 4-of-14 shooting. Her primary UNC defenders Alyssa Ustby and Maria Gakdeng provided her no space on the outside, and limited her looks and opportunities inside. Marta fouled out with just under 3 minutes left in the game.

• Tonight’s 52 points are a season low at home for Cal. The previous low points 63 in their early season win over Auburn.

• The referees called 19 fouls on Cal, 13 on North Carolina. In addition, there were 30 turnovers between the two teams. I don’t think the referees were terribly one-sided, as both teams had reasonable gripes about the legitimacy of the calls. Nonetheless, it all adds up to 62 game stoppages. Games like this provide no opportunity for Cal’s offense to get into a flow, and to find opportunities to push the tempo and find transition looks. It was a bit reminiscent of the Stanford game last week and how Stanford almost won ugly when the game was slowed to a crawl by the constant whistles.

• * In the postgame comments, Coach Charmin Smith said that Michelle Onyiah suffered from cramps and will be OK going forward.