Women's Basketball; Cal Outlasts Stanford in OT, 78-71

Lulu Twidale dominates the extra period to lead Cal to victory

After a week off following a Northeast road trip to Syracuse and Boston College, the Cal and Stanford Women’s Basketball teams faced off this afternoon at Haas Pavilion. The extra time off helped Cal, as Sakima Walker was fully recovered following the violent blow to the head she suffered in last Sunday’s win over Boston College. Stanford beat Cal 78-69 in the December matchup behind Courtney Ogden’s season high 25 points. Could Cal gain revenge and split the season series?

Credit: Cal Athletics

Stanford jumped out to an early 15-9 behind Chloe Cardy’s two early 3-point baskets. Stanford was the crisper team in the first quarter, shooting 50% on their fourteen shots. Cal’s offense was out of sync, connecting on only three of eleven shot attempt. Stanford led 19-9 at the end of the quarter. Clardy outscored the entire Cal team 10-9 in the opening period. Cal repeatedly went inside to try to score. Though the output was only 25% shooting, Cal managed to draw two fouls on Stanford’s freshman star Lara Somfai, forcing her to the bench for an extended period of time.

Mjracle Sheppard opened the second quarter aggressively, driving to the basket on back-to-back trips and scoring 7 straight points for Cal. Stanford responded, and maintained an 8-10 point lead for much of the second quarter. With under four minutes left, Cal went on a 7-0 scoring run to shrink the lead to 32-30. Gisella Maul nailed an NBA range 3-pointer to fuel the run. The fouls were starting to accumulate for the Cardinal, with Clardy, Somfai and Courtney Ogden each having two fouls already. Cal continued to be aggressive and force the contact. Driving layups by Lulu Twidale and a low post basket from Taylor Barnes tied the game at 34-34 going into halftime.

Lulu Twidale led Cal in scoring with 10 first half points. All of her points were from close range. Cal was winning the interior battle, outscoring Stanford 18-10 in the paint.

Stanford did not play smart basketball to begin the third period. The Cardinal committed four early fouls, putting Cal in the bonus with over 7 minutes remaining. Cal went on a 6-0 scoring run to grab a 42-36 lead with six minutes remaining. After an ugly turnover near midcourt, Stanford Coach Kate Paye called a timeout to regroup. Cal’s largest lead was eight near the 4-minute mark. Stanford sped their pace up and was able to reduce the lead to two before Sakima Walker’s two free throws near the end of the period. Cal owned a 52-48 entering the final period.

Sakima Walker picked up her fourth foul of the game on a hard offensive foul two minutes into the quarter. Stanford held Cal scoreless for over three minutes as the Cardinal went on an 8-0 scoring run to grab a 60-59 lead with just over two minutes left. Cardinal C Alex Eschmeyer, playing with four fouls, blocked three Cal layups during this stretch. For the entire quarter, Eschmeyer scored 8 points, grabbed 4 rebounds and blocked 4 shots and was the reason Cal could not push their lead higher.

Sakima Walker scored to reclaim the lead for Cal 61-60. Haas Pavilion was loud. Cal’s defense held steady as they forced a shot clock violation. Neither team could score over the next couple possessions until Alex Eschmeyer scored on a short jumper over Sakima Walker with 36 seconds left to give Stanford the one-point lead, 62-61. Lulu Twidale started the game 0-for-6 from 3-point range. She broke that streak on a no hesitation 3-point shot just ten seconds later to give Cal a 64-62 lead. Courtney Ogden could not connect for Stanford, and the Cardinal were forced to start fouling to extend the game. Lulu Twidale made only 1-of-2 free throws with 15 seconds left to extend Cal’s lead to 65-62. Stanford rushed up the floor. Lara Somfai hit a top of the key three pointer to tie the game at 65-65. Cal could not get a shot off as the clock expired. On to overtime.

Lulu Twidale led off the extra time scoring with another 3-point basket. The teams traded baskets until Lulu Twidale connected on her third straight long range shot to extend the lead to 73-67 with just under two minutes left. That was effectively the game. Stanford was able to cut the lead to four a couple times, but Cal responded each time as the Bears closed out the 78-71 victory.

Overtime was all about Lulu. Twidale hit a driving layup when Stanford first cut the lead to 4 points, and added two free throws late in the period to score 10 total points in overtime. Twidale scored 14 of Cal’s last 17 points of the game, on her way to a game high 24 points total.

Taylor Barnes added 15 points for Cal. Gisella Maul played all 45 minutes and was a steadying force in a variety of ways. Maul scored 8 points, led Cal with 8 rebounds, and added 3 assists, 1 block and 1 steal.

Lara Somfai scored 16 points and grabbed 9 rebounds to lead Stanford. Courtney Ogden scored only 6 points in the rematch.

Notes and Observations

• The announced attendance was 4,519. They seemed louder than that during the fourth period and overtime. Coach Charmin Smith after the game, when asked about the crowd; “Haas is weird in that four thousand sounds like eight thousand. The acoustics in the gym, the way it’s built. It felt like the Battle of The Bay. I love this game and that there are people here, now, for this.”

• Lulu Twidale, on her end of game domination; “My teammates earlier on were doing such a good job and drawing so much attention. And then it’s just my teammates setting really good screens, and then just staying confident. Be ready for when it’s my time to shoot the ball.”

• Stanford capitalized on Sakima Walker's foul trouble by playing the 6’ 5” Alex Eschmeyer a season high 29 minutes. With Walker’s own 6’ 5” frame out, Eschmeyer controlled the interior in the fourth quarter and kept Stanford in the game.

• Sakima Walker committed three obvious offensive fouls in the game. The last foul resulted in Stanford’s Nunu Agara splayed on the floor in the third period and kept her out for nearly the rest of the game. These three fouls come after Walker herself was the victim of a hard foul last week against Boston College; a foul that kept her out of most of the game. My own novice interpretation is that Walker may have decided to be the aggressor today as a reaction to last week. To Sakima’s credit, she played the last 4 minutes of the game and the entire overtime without fouling out.

• After the game, Coach Smith led the crowd in a chant and then directed the Cal Band through one song. Coach Smith ended her postgame comments with; “These moment are really, really meaningful. It’s a hard job being a head coach, it’s a hard job being a student athlete in this day and age. I’m just glad that we were able to have a moment to smile and feel good with a win today.” I encourage you to go watch the entire postgame comments to truly capture the joy and relief that Coach Smith felt.

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Both Coach Madsen and Coach Smith are Stanford graduates. This weekend saw two Stanford grads lead the California Golden Bears to victories over their alma mater. As always, Go Bears!