Tonight’s game against the Boston College Eagles (13-13, 4-9 in ACC) represented a bounceback opportunity for Cal after last week’s road losses to Louisville and Notre Dame. The Eagles feature a dynamic backcourt duo in T’yana Todd and Kaylah Ivey. Todd leads the ACC in 3-point FG% at 50%, and Ivey leads the conference in assists/turnover ratio. While Cal was favored, the Bears could not afford to take the Eagles lightly.
Turnovers once again plagued the Golden Bears early on, with 3 unforced turnovers in the first three minutes. Boston College could not take advantage, as the teams traded baskets for most of the first quarter. The Bears went to Michelle Onyiah down low early and often. Onyiah scored Cal’s first 6 points of the game. Marta Suarez was able to drive to the basket at will, adding 6 points in the paint. Cal led 17-15 at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter started the same way. Cal had 4 unforced turnovers early on, While Boston College started connecting on their 3-point shots. Boston College took a 23-22 lead after a 3-pointer from Savannah Samuel near the 5-minute mark, prompting a frustrated Charmin Smith to call timeout. The Bears went on a 14-2 run after the stoppage of play, with a mix of interior layups and 3-point baskets from Lulu Twidale and Ioanna Krimili. Cal took a 36-25 lead into halftime. 24 of Cal’s 36 points were in the paint. The points were a combination of low-post baskets from Onyiah (10 first half points) and penetration drives from Marta Suarez (9 points) and Kayla Williams (4 points). The Eagles connected on 5-of-10 3-point shots, but were only 4-of-15 from inside the arc.
Both teams had inefficient starts after halftime. Boston College missed their first eight shots, while Cal was averaging a turnover a minute. Cal continued to go inside, and held a 45-32 lead midway through the period. Boston College extended their defense, employing a full-court press to break Cal’s rhythm. Cal was slow to respond to the change, and the Eagles were able to get the lead to single digits with just over 4 minutes left in the period. Cal answered with a 4-0 run, but a late Cal turnover and last second layup by Boston College’s Nene Ndiaye closed the lead to 10. Cal led 51-41 going into the fourth quarter.
The Eagles scored the first 5 points of the quarter to halve the lead to 5. Cal figured out how to beat Boston College’s press. Ioanna Krimili hit a long-range transition 3-pointer, Michelle Onyiah made a layup and foul shot, followed by another easy entry pass and layup for Michelle, as Cal pushed the lead back to 11, 58-49.
Boston College wouldn’t go away. The Eagles once again scored 5 quick points to get the lead down to 6. Cal had only connected on 3-of-8 shots and had 4 turnovers, while Boston College continued to be efficient in their shooting. Cal led 59-53 at the 5-minute TV timeout. Boston College committed their fifth foul near the 6-minute mark, meaning Cal was shooting two free throws for the rest of the game.
Cal pushed the lead to 9 with 3 minutes left, 63-54. Boston College chose to start fouling to slow the game down. Michelle Onyiah fouled out with 2:27 left. Boston College was making their free throws and shooting better than Cal. At the 2-minute point, Cal’s lead had shrunk down to 5. That was as close as the Eagles could get. Cal made 6-of-6 free throws down stretch, and the Eagles could not close the deficit. Cal held on for the 72-63 win.
Michelle Onyiah led Cal with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Marta Suarez added 18 points and 9 rebounds. Cal scored 38 points in the paint; the gameplan was geared around interior play. Cal shot only 5-of-24 from long range.
Guard T’yana Todd led the Eagles in scoring with 24 points. She connected on 7-of-16 shots, including 4-of-6 long range shots. The rest of the Eagles only shot 12-of-43 for the game.
Cal had 26 turnovers in the game. By my count, most of them were unforced. Most of Cal’s turnovers come within the flow of the offense, like just missing the interior pass to Michelle Onyiah, or Marta Suarez looking to kick to a shooter on a drive. When asked about it postgame, Coach Smith indicated zero tolerance for turnovers, and indicated they are working on it continuously as it’s in their control to reduce.
Overall, the mood afterwards was of relief. “We have 20 wins, on February 13th”, Coach Smith exclaimed early in her postgame remarks. She chose to not dwell on this game as she was flanked by Michelle Onyiah and Marta Suarez, and was focusing on the win total and moving towards Sunday’s matchup with Syracuse. Onyiah and Suarez nodded strongly in agreement.
Other Notes
Michelle Onyiah’s 21 points bought her to 1,013 points for her career as a Golden Bear. She is the 32nd Cal player to register 1,000+ points.
Cal is now 20-6 overall, 9-5 in ACC play. With Florida State’s and Georgia Tech’s losses, Cal is tied for 7th in the conference standings with Georgia Tech, one game behind Florida State. Cal has already beaten Florida State, and hosts Georgia Tech at the end of the month.
Michelle took a long time to get here but she is fulfilling her 5 star recruit potential — when she catches it inside this year she is dominating most other centers. I’m glad she came back for her grad student year.
I think Cal’s tournament resume is pretty solid at this point. Having handed NC State it’s only conference loss is particularly noteworthy.