Cal sweeps to Raising the B.A.R. Invitational victory

The Bears wrap up non-conference play with wins over Fordham and Temple as ACC play beckons

photo via @calwbball twitter

Ed. note - the usual post-game thoughts for the LA Bowl vs. UNLV are still in progress, delayed by holiday scheduling and lots of weekend basketball action. More to come as both basketball teams enjoy a holiday break before returning to action in 2025.

The Bears faced a touch of adversity in their weekend home tournament that closed out non-conference play. Marta Suarez was out with an unspecified injury. Back-up guard Lola Donez was unavailable as well. For the first time this year, Cal had to weather a bad shooting night from three. Both games were competitive affairs for longer than Vegas might have predicted, as Cal led by single digits at halftime against both Fordham and Temple.

But as Sunday closed the weekend ended only with success. Cal eased past Fordham, 69-53 and used a dominating 3rd quarter to close out Temple, 89-63. Charmin Smith was able to give extended minutes to her bench and probably got some useful scouting so that she can start planning her rotation for ACC play. And Cal continued to put up a 3 point barrage that must be the envy of college basketball.

It took some time across the entire weekend for that barrage to come, and Cal actually had their worst 3 point shooting game of the season against Fordham, going just 8-31 (26%). That plus a 28% turnover rate meant that it was almost certainly Cal’s worst offensive performance of the season relative to opponent strength. But Cal simultaneously held Fordham to their 2nd worst offensive performance of the season and dominated in the paint to the tune of 19-28 shooting inside.

It was that combination of defense and interior scoring that allowed Cal to slowly pull away for the ultimately comfortable win. Ioanna Krimili lead the was with 19 points and was the only player to have her jump shot working, to go alongside an ultra efficient 15 points on 6 shots for Michelle Onyiah.

On Sunday against Temple, the story was very different, as both teams got off to hot starts offensively, and Temple was down just 5 at halftime even though Cal went 10-20 from 3 in that first half. But Temple was settling for lots of iffy midrange shots, and those same shots stopped falling in the second half while Cal maintained their diet of 3s and shots at the rim, outscoring the Owls 29-13 in the 3rd quarter to put the game away.

This time, Krimili was joined by Lulu Twidale and Kayla Williams, as Cal’s backcourt trio combined for 57 points and 15 made threes. They were so prolific that the trio barely had to play in the 4th quarter to close out a successful weekend sweep. Before they went to the bench, Cal looked poised to break the program record for 3s set just days ago against Stanford. Cal hit their 15th three of the game just as the 4th quarter began, but sitting their best shooters resulted in a more paint-oriented offense and Cal finished with ‘just’ 16 triples for the game.

Maybe the most relevant storyline for the rest of the year was Cal’s bench. With Suarez and Donez unavailable, Cal gave extended minutes to other players who hadn’t seen a ton of court time yet this year. The top of Cal’s rotation is very settled - the starting five of Krimili, Twidale, Williams, Suarez, and Onyiah is pretty well set in stone. Gabrielle Abigor has carved out her role as Onyiah’s back-up at center and has been producing Onyiah-lite numbers already as a true freshman.

But there are plenty of opportunities as rotational guards and wings, and Charmin Smith gave minutes to Natalia Ackerman, Jayda Noble, Zahra King, Gisella Maul, Kamryn Mafua, Anastasia Drosouni.

Ackerman and Noble are in competition for back-up forward minutes, and their usage may well depend on match-ups. Ackerman is the better offensive player and rebounder, while Noble is the better defender.

King, Maul, Mafua, Drosouni, and the unavailable Donez have all received playing time at back-up guard, though due to limited minutes and low-usage roles it’s not yet clear what their strengths and weaknesses will be. King has maybe the most eye-catching style, with the kind of speed and ball handling skills that promise special things as she adapts to the college game. Her late game behind-the-back-through-the-legs-blow-by was one of the craziest handle moves I’ve ever seen at Haas Pavilion. Maul has the advantage of college experience at a high level while with Texas last year, though her start to the season was limited by an injury that kept her out for the first four games of the year.

What will the rotation look like when Cal re-starts ACC play on January 2 at Clemson? Charmin Smith has a week and a half to assess her squad and figure out how to balance minutes behind her wildly successful starting 5. It’s a good ‘problem’ to have.