Cal WBB picks up first win of the season on Senior Day against ASU

On Sunday, Cal women’s basketball finally got off the schneid and defeated the Arizona State Sun Devils by a final score of 67-55. Cal sophomore guard Leilani McIntosh led the way for the Golden Bears with 21 points on 5-7 shooting from the field, 4-4 shooting from 3-point range, and 7-7 shooting from the foul line. Sophomore forward Evelien Lutje Schipholt and freshman guard Mia Mastrov each chipped in 12 points. Arizona State junior guard Taya Hanson finished with 17 points. Cal improves to 1-14 overall and 1-11 in the Pac-12 while Arizona State falls to 10-9 overall and 6-8 in the Pac-12.

“It’s been kinda like the monkey on our back,” Cal head coach Charmin Smith said after the game. “April [Phillips] said it was a Gorilla. It’s been heavy. And I’m just really relived. I told the team I’m just so proud of them for sticking with this. We could have thrown in the towel and have bad attitudes.

“So many reasons to give up and we didn’t…Just really proud that we stayed with it and I know it’s only one, but it’s a very special one and add on the fact that it’s Senior Day and it’s Archer’s last game. It’s a game that we’ll remember…We gotta keep building on this. Think this will give us a lot of confidence going forward that if we stick together, we’re on the right track.”

Arizona State led 5-2 with 5:00 to go in the 1st quarter. Both teams were struggling to shoot as Arizona State was 2-9 from the field while Cal was 1-4. At the end of the quarter, Arizona State led 8-5. Maggie Besselink had 5 points for the Sun Devils while Mia Mastrov had 4 points for the Bears. Both players were in a nice groove. Everyone else was off. Arizona State was 3-18 (18.8%) from the field while Cal was 2-8 (25.0%).

The game continued to remain tight as Arizona State was up 14-13 with 4:51 to go in the half. Arizona State was shooting 5-22 (22.7%) from the field while Cal was shooting 4-13 (30.8%). Besselink still led Arizona State with 5 points while Lute Schipholt led Cal with 6 points on 2-2 shooting from the field and 2-2 shooting from the foul line.

Cal would soon go up 21-19 with 2:30 to go in the half thanks to a rare five-point play. McIntosh was trying to lob a pass to Lute Schipholt and the pass instead went through the basket, counting as a 3-pointer. Lute Schipholt also got fouled while the ball was in the air, went to the foul line, and made both foul shots. That play really seemed to shift momentum in Cal’s favor.

“I was trying to lob it to Eve and it just went in,” McIntosh said with a bit of a laugh. “So, [that’s it].”

At halftime, Cal led 26-22. Sierra Richey made a huge 3-pointer for the Bears to beat the buzzer. Evelien Lute Schipholt led Cal with 8 points and 5 rebounds while Maggie Besselink and Sydnei Caldwell each had 5 points for Arizona State.

With 7:05 to go in the 3rd, Cal led 29-25. Fatou Samb had a nice hoop plus the harm for the Bears. She had 4 points after missing the free throw. Cal would then lead 33-28 with 4:36 to go in the 3rd. Dalayah Daniels had 5 points and 3 rebounds for Cal. She was starting to get rolling. At the end of the 3rd quarter, Cal would lead 42-34. Lutje Schipholt was up to 10 points and 5 rebounds while McIntosh (9 points) and Mastrov (8 points) were stepping up as well. Cal had one quarter to finish strong.

“There are times when you have a lead and you’re like uh oh, here they came and it feels really really bad. This wasn’t one of those times,” Smith said. “I don’t know. We talked about what we needed to do so much and we were so locked in. I didn’t believe we were going to let it go. I felt good about this one.

“It was just a composure that this team is learning and a confidence that we’re ok. We can win this. We can weather the storm. I want to credit our bench for putting us in a position where we had a halftime lead…Like Leilani said, this was a complete team effort to allow us to survive their run in the 4th.”

Rather than giving Arizona State some life, Cal quickly got out to a nice 5-0 run to start the 4th quarter thanks to a bucket inside from Lutje Schipholt and a 3-point play from McIntosh. Cal was now in the driver’s seat up 47-34 with 9:02 to go.

Cal would then go up 50-34 with 8:06 to go after a 3-pointer from McIntosh. She was now up to 15 points. Cal was looking like they might not just win, but win big. With 6:03 to go, Cal led 52-40. Cal was still in a good spot. They just had to finish strong. With 3:16 to go, Cal was still up by 12 points (56-44) after a bucket from Ugonne Onyiah. That bucket looked like it would seal the Sun Devils’ fate.

In the end, Cal walked out with a 67-55 victory. While McIntosh was the top performer with her 21 points and clutch play, it truly was a team effort. The team looked both relieved and excited to finally pick up their first win of the season. You could sense it was coming after the way they played on Friday against Arizona, but they still had to pull out the win.

While some teams would have reacted negatively to all the COVID pauses, this Cal team used it as a chance to grow and come together as a team. As a result, they came out of the other side a lot better, more cohesive team.

“I would say it helped us stick together more,” McIntosh said. “It was a time where could have rolled over. Like season’s over, we haven’t won a game yet. As we stuck together, we got to know each other. It helped push us to get close to Arizona and then get the dub today.”

“I think from a coach’s perspective, we got to practice and work on ourselves,” Smith said. “We’re a really young team that’s missing that preparation time. When you give us two weeks to prepare for a team we’re going to be a lot better than when it’s game after game week after week.”

In a season that has been marred by injury and COVID-19 pauses, it’s really nice for this Cal team to finally get a win. Especially on Senior Day to honor Archer Olson. Obviously, they have a lot more growth and learning to do, but this win is definitely a step in the right direction. A win that that they can use for motivation both as they head into the Pac-12 tournament and also next season.

“It’s definitely huge,” Olson said. “That’s the main thing I wanted coming out here today. It’s exciting to have that for all our teammates. We’ve been really working hard and it shows how much progress we’ve made. It feels good that we got this win for Senior Day…I think it was really important time for us to focus on what we could do individually.”

Another source of inspiration for this Cal team has come from across the Bay in Palo Alto. Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer, who Charmin Smith used to play for, has been a consistent source of inspiration and encouragement for Smith. As a matter of fact, during the post-game Zoom session, Smith got a text from VanDerveer congratulating her on the win.

“I just got a text from her right now,” Smith said of her former coach. “Tara has told me you’re a good coach, your time will come. That gave me a lot of confidence…We’re gonna get it back to where we want Cal basketball to be.”

On that note, up next for Cal is a road game at Stanford on Sunday, February 28. That game will tipoff at 1:00 PM PST on Pac-12 Networks.