Cal opens up regular season on Tuesday night against Houston
On Tuesday at 7:00 PM PST, Cal women’s basketball will have their regular season opener against Houston at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley. Cal comes into this game as the #24th ranked team in the AP Poll and will look to back up their ranking with a convincing victory.
On Houston
The Cougars are led by a trio of guards in juniors Jasmyne Harris and Angela Harris, and senior Serithia Hawkins. Jasmyne averaged 19.6 points and 5.3 rebounds per game last season while Angela averaged 14.9 points per game. As for Hawkins, she averaged 12.0 points per game and 8.1 rebounds. Under their guidance, the Cougars went 20-12 overall and 9-7 in the American Athletic Conference.
Keys to the Game
Given that Houston is a very perimeter-oriented team, it will be imperative for Cal to guard the perimeter well and not allow Houston to get hot from beyond the arc. Jasmyne and Angela Harris averaged over seven 3-point shot attempts per game combined last season while shooting 35.76%. Given how Cal let Westmont get hot from beyond the arc last week, there’s no reason to think Houston won’t try to test Cal’s perimeter defense early.
One area of weakness for Houston last season was their rebounding (-4.3 margin). If Cal wants to win this game handily, they have to dominate the boards, limiting Houston’s scoring opportunities and creating more scoring opportunities for themselves. Kristine Anigwe, Alaysia Styles, and McKenzie Forbes should have no trouble crashing the boards, but the guards will need to do their part as well. Especially since Serithia Hawkins is Houston’s top rebounder.
A final key to this game for Cal will be to get out to a good start and not let Houston hang around early. With less than 2 minutes to go in the first half of their exhibition against Westmont, Cal found themselves in a tie game before going on a 7-0 run to close the half. Cal cannot make the same mistake on Tuesday night. They need to come out with a sense of urgency and determination to not allow Houston to even remotely make this game interesting.