Women's Basketball: Cal Holds On To Defeat Virginia, 64-58

Sakima Walker leads the Bears with 20 points and 10 rebounds

Tonight was the start of an important two-game homestand critical to the Bears postseason hopes. #51 NET-ranked Cal hosted #36 Virginia tonight, a prime opportunity to add a quality Quad 2 win to their resume. #44 Virginia Tech pays a visit to Haas on Sunday.

Lulu Twidale drives on Virginia’s Paris Clark late in the fourth quarter. Photo courtesy Don Collier.

The Cavaliers are led by all-ACC PG Kymora Johnson(19 points, 6 assists per game) and boast a starting lineup featuring three players over 6’2”. Claudia Langarita was in tonight’s starting lineup over Lola Donez to provide some needed size.

Lulu Twidale scored Cal’s first five points and Cal’s defense forced two turnovers as Cal raced out to a 7-2 lead, forcing an early Virginia timeout. Cal led by as much as seven before a late Virginia spurt closed the gap to two. Virginia’s size was not impacting Cal, as Cal’s inside-out game was executing well. Lulu Twidale scored 8 points, Sakima Walker added 6 points, as Cal led 17-15 at the end of the first quarter.

After pulling even with Cal at the beginning of the second quarter, Virginia’s shooting went cold. The Bears went on a 14-4 run to lead 31-21 at the midway point of the quarter. In Puff Morris’ second game back from injury, she connected on two long range shots as Cal’s hot shooting continued. For the period, Cal shot 57% overall as they pushed the lead to 45-29 at the end of the period.

In Sunday’s win over Pitt, Cal’s defense let up in the fourth quarter as Cal led comfortably and were never seriously threatened. Coach Charmin Smith obviously emphasized defense coming into tonight’s game. Cals guards fought extra hard to work through screens and stay connected to Kymora Johnson. Johnson was held to 4 points on four shot attempts. The Cavaliers shot 36% for the half, and were only 1-of-6 from long range.

Virginia opened the third quarter scoring six straight points, forcing Coach Smith to call a timeout to regroup Cal’s defense. It was a quarter of streaks, as Virginia started the period on an 8-0 scoring streak. Cal responded with a 7-1 scoring run, followed by Virginia ending the period with seven straight points. The Bears connected on only three shots on thirteen attempts as Cal’s lead was reduced to 53-45 entering the final period.

Mjracle Sheppard started off the fourth quarter with a midrange jumper. Virginia upped the tempo on offense and rattled off six straight points to cut the Cal lead to 55-51 with eight minutes remaining. Cal maintained a slim lead over the next stretch. The Cavaliers were getting easy looks in transition and closed the gap to 60-58 with just under two minutes left in the game. Cal’s shooting woes were continuing, shooting only 25% for the third and fourth period.

Virginia had two good looks at the basket in the last minute to tie the game, but failed to convert on either attempt. Lulu Twidale sank four free throws in the last ten seconds to seal the win, 64-58.

Sakima Walker led the Bears with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Lulu Twidale scored 17 points, and Gisella Maul added 12 points.

Kymora Johnson was limited to 10 points on 3-of-11 shooting. She added 8 assists and 5 rebounds in an all-around solid game for the Cavaliers. Virginia’s big front line of Tabitha Amanze and Sa’myah Smith scored 25 points combined, but it took 27 shots to get there.

Poatgame Comments

• It was a tale of two halves. Cal shot 56% for the first half, but was only 6-of-26 (23%) in the second half. Coach Charmin Smith said after the game, ”It’s really hard to keep a good team down. I think we could have done some things better in the second half, and we got the win. We had a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter against Duke and we didn’t hold on, right? So this is progress for us to be able to do this. We are growing. We are a better team than we were in January, than we were in December.”

• Puff Morris played 21 minutes off the bench, scoring six points and committing three fouls as she shakes off the rust from missing over a month of time. Tonight, she was energized and played with a hard-nosed defensive attitude. In the postgame comments, Sakima Walker was ecstatic; ”I’m so happy that Puff is back. It make me really excited. I love my freshies. When she hit her first three, I was running back, like, BOOM.”

• Coach Smith, on the defensive assignment tonight; ”I told them to be confident and have an attitude. They’re really good guards, but you know what? I’m going to be up. I thought we displayed that in the first half. We have a lot of respect for Kymora, and Paris, and Gabby and we knew we were going to have to be solid defensively, to guard them. And I like how we stepped up to that challenge.

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The announced crowd for tonight’s game was 1,310. Though it was a late game on a Thursday night, this was a meaningful game against a quality opponent. It was highly entertaining and fun for those that did attend. The crowd was loud and engaged, but simply lacking in size.

Let’s try to double or triple that number on Sunday, when Virginia Tech pays a visit. The Hokies beat Stanford this evening and provide Cal with the chance to add another Quad 2 win to their resume. A win should put them on the right side of the tournament bubble.