Cal Women's Basketball Falls to Columbia in 2026 WBIT Quarterfinal
The Bears can't get enough stops against the disciplined Lions in 74-68 defeat.
When a power conference team plays a really good mid-major team, you quickly find out what is ‘real’ about the other team.
Sometimes, elite looking stats from a non-power team are a mirage, built on a soft schedule full of smaller, less athletic opposition. Sometimes, a team with a gaudy record won’t look the part when they come up against higher end talent.
When I looked at Columbia prior to Thursday’s game, two statistical marker stood out:
51.6% shooting on 2 point shots, good for 30th in the nation. Wedged between Louisville and North Carolina, two ACC teams that will be playing in the Sweet 16 this weekend.
The 7th best offensive rebounding rate in the country, wedged between Syracuse and Texas.
Were these stats real, a reflection of scheme and talent that should have Cal fans scared? Or an artifact of playing an Ivy league schedule, a strength that would evaporate when faced with Cal’s power conference size and speed?
I suspected it was real. The Ivy League was the best non-power conference in women’s basketball this year, and Columbia was coming off of two utterly dominant wins in the first two rounds of the WBIT.
I was, unfortunately, correct. Columbia shot 25-46 (54%) on their 2 point shots and pulled down 46% of their own missed shots. Those two Columbia strengths powered the Lions to 74 points in a slow, 64 possession game. By defensive efficiency, it was Cal’s 2nd worst defensive performance of the season.
All game long, Columbia would move the ball slowly and deliberately, with a five-out offensive set that tried to pull Cal’s defenders away from the basket, waiting to set up one of their playmakers with a one-on-one opportunity. Time and again, Columbia found a matchup they liked, went to work, and broke Cal down off the dribble. And when that first shot missed, there was a pretty good chance that Columbia would pull down the rebound as they crashed relentlessly.
I was thoroughly impressed with how they went about breaking Cal down, and when Charmin Smith called a timeout in frustration as the Lions went up by 12 points early in the 3rd quarter, I thought they were going to run away with the game. Cal seemed frustrated and didn’t have any answers.
To Cal’s credit, the Bears dug deep and came all the way back. When the Bears held firm on an exhausting 45 second, 4-shot Columbia possession, then scored at the other end to take a 1 point lead with 2:06 remaining, I thought Cal was somehow going to pull this game out. But Columbia was unflappable. Riley Weiss* (9-14 from the field on a high degree of difficulty) hit a mid range jumper, Lulu Twidale missed a decent look from 3, Columbia got another bucket, and the Bears couldn’t find a good shot to attempt another comeback in the final minute.
On Sunday night I said that this game might be a matchup between the two best teams left in the WBIT. Nothing that I saw on Thursday night dissuaded me from that conclusion, and I think Columbia is likely to head to Wichita, win two more games, and end the year with a post-season title. Sometimes, a loss is about the mistakes your team made, and sometimes a loss is just because your opponent was the better team.
*I realize this is the kind of privileged jerk thing a fan of a power conference school would say, but how much money would we need to pay to convince Weiss to come to Berkeley for her senior year because she was smooooth out there.
The story of the 2025-26 season was one of close but not quite enough. The Bears were probably three wins away from making the NCAA tournament, and that thought is painful in a season where Cal lost NINE games by single digits. So it’s apropos that Cal’s post-season also end in a close-but-no-cigar defeat where the Bears led in the final few minute but couldn’t close it out. I think this team had the talent to win the WBIT, but they probably didn’t have the experience or focus to maintain the consistency you need across five straight games to pull it off.
However, the story of this season doesn’t have to end here. These particular Bears have (mostly) a rare choice in the modern world of college basketball: they can choose to build off of this season. Seven of Cal’s top eight rotation players have eligibility remaining.
Sakima and Claudia were graduating and we wish them the best. We're going to miss them. And to everyone else, bring your butts back. We like this team. We like what we can do and and we have more to do together. I think this is a great place in terms of our culture and and how we show up for one another.
-Charmin Smith, post-game media availability
Lulu Twidale can come back and stamp her name up and down the Cal record book. Gisella Maul can come back and have a full season as a lead offensive option. Taylor Barnes and Puff Morris can build on really promising freshmen seasons. Mjracle Sheppard can come back as Cal’s designated perimeter defensive stopper. Naya Ojukwu and Lola Donez can come back and try to build larger roles after a season as options off the bench.
It’s probably naive to expect all of them to return. Few teams outside of the national elite have that kind of retention. But if they do, they can author a special season that Cal fans would remember, in part because it would be something that this team would have built together, across multiple seasons.
I've really enjoyed playing with this team, and there's no one else that I'd rather be out on the court with. So, you know, I, I can only take away good things from the season.
-Gisella Maul, post-game media availability
Sakima Walker had been the star player in Cal’s first two WBIT games, but Columbia was much better at preventing easy entry passes, and Walker was comparatively quiet on offense, with 11 points on 9 shots. Walker was less quiet on defense, where she collected 4 blocks and was basically the one player who was able to consistently alter Columbia’s shots.
If Cal can retain the players on their roster with eligibility remaining, optimism for 2026-27 will be justifiably high. But there is definitely a 6’5’’ hole in the rotation that will have to be addressed in the transfer portal. Sakima Walker was Cal’s only consistently efficient interior scorer, Cal’s only consistent rim protector, and Cal’s best all-around rebounder on a team that was otherwise mediocre on the glass.
Priority #1 in the off-season is retaining the core players from this year’s team. Priority #2 is to find a center who can fill the very big shoes that Cal’s center is leaving behind.
If Charmin Smith and Cal can nail both priorities, next season will start with a level of excitement that Berkeley hasn’t seen in years.