Cal falls to Virginia in NCAA Tournament

On Friday, Cal women’s basketball fell to Virginia in the NCAA Tournament by a final score of 68-62. Virginia sophomore center Felicia Aiyeotan led the way for her team with 16 points and 6 rebounds while Cal freshman Kianna Smith had a career-high 20 points to go along with 8 assists.

Coming into this game, the major storyline was the reunion of Cal head coach Lindsay Gottlieb and Virginia head coach Joanne Boyle. Unfortunately, the absence of Cal junior Kristine Anigwe, who was unable to play for medical reasons, overshadowed that storyline. Cal released the following statement prior to the game:

“California junior center Kristine Anigwe will not be participating in today’s NCAA Tournament game against Virginia. She had been medically cleared and practiced fully these past two weeks; however, she was unable to participate in the morning shootaround and at this time is not cleared by our medical staff to play in today’s game.”

With Anigwe out, Lindsay Gottlieb decided to start sophomore forward CJ West in the frontcourt. While West isn’t a three-time All-Pac-12 player, she played well in this game, finishing with 14 points and 6 rebounds. Cal needed her to come up big inside and they really couldn’t have asked for a better performance from her.

The real hero in this game for Cal was freshman Kianna Smith, who scored their first seven points and posted a career-high 20 points on 9-14 shooting from the field to go along with 8 assists. Smith played the best game of her career and was the main reason her team was in this game all the way until the very end. While the rest of the Cal team came out flat and a bit tense, it was Smith who helped steady the ship and get her teammates to settle into the game.

During the first half, Cal hung tough with Virginia, taking a 31-30 lead into halftime. Kianna Smith had 12 of Cal’s 31 points while Asha Thomas and CJ West each had 6 points. Cal was doing all they could to stay in the game and they were overall succeeding up until this point.

In the second half, Cal started to go cold. They had a nearly five minute stretch where they didn’t score at all, allowing Virginia to go on a 12-2 run. Chen Yue got some minutes off the bench, but wasn’t able to produce when given a few touches inside. With Kianna Smith cooling off, Cal’s entire offense started to struggle. It was clear that they were missing the presence of Anigwe and that it was going to be tough to overcome her absence for a full 40 minutes.

During the fourth quarter, Cal started to wake up a bit. Kianna Smith scored eight points while Asha Thomas scored 10. Both of them did a really good job of jump-starting the offense after having such a quiet third quarter. Despite their efforts, Cal wasn’t able to regain the lead. They were able to tie it up with 1:53 to go after Asha Thomas split her free throws, but that was the closest that they would get. Virginia was able to make some clutch shots and capitalize on an offensive foul called on Cal senior Mikayla Cowling.

Given how close this game was and how hard Cal fought, it’s hard to imagine them not advancing had Kristine Anigwe been able to play. Had she been healthy, she would have been the best player on the floor and probably would have made the difference. To Virginia’s credit, they took advantage of her absence by feeding Felicia Aiyeotan inside and getting her easy looks. Cal’s inability to slow Aiyeotan down more than anything is why they came up short.

As far as Cal’s overall season is concerned, they should still feel good about what they accomplished. They earned a 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament and got their first win over Stanford since 2015. They had a very competitive season and put themselves in position to make a run in March. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to overcome the absence of their star player in the NCAA Tournament, but that shouldn’t overshadow what was otherwise a very good season.

Looking ahead to next season, Cal says goodbye to seniors Mikayla Cowling and Penina Davidson, but they welcome another McDonald’s All-American to the fold in McKenzie Forbes, who will give them dynamic play at the wing position. Provided Cal can stay healthy, they should be back in the NCAA Tournament for a third consecutive season.