Cal unable to spoil Stanford’s senior night
On Sunday, Cal women’s basketball fell to #10 Stanford by a final score of 72-54. Stanford improves to 24-4 overall and 14-2 in the Pac-12 while Cal falls to 17-11 overall and 5-11 in the Pac-12. Sophomore forward Alanna Smith led the way for the Cardinal with 17 points and 8 rebounds while sophomore forward Kristine Anigwe was the top player for the Golden Bears with 12 points and 4 rebounds.
Cal knew this wasn’t going to be an easy game and to their credit, they fought hard, trailing 37-32 at the half. Cal played really well in the opening half, not letting Stanford have their way. During the opening half, the only Stanford player that got rolling was junior guard Brittany McPhee, who had 16 points in the first half. Nobody else for the Cardinal was in double figures, which allowed Cal to hang around. Neither team was shooting well from the field or from beyond the arc and so Cal was in as good of a position as they could ask to be in.
The problem is that during the second half, Stanford found another gear that Cal couldn’t combat. Stanford senior guard Briana Roberson had 11 of her 16 points in the second half while senior guard Karlie Samuelson had 8 of her 11 points in the second half, finding her groove from beyond the arc like she has all season. While those other Stanford players got rolling, Cal remained stuck at the same level they were at in the first half and if anything regressed, playing more rushed and forcing turnovers due to Stanford’s quality defense. Cal also only shot 5-8 from the foul line while Stanford shot 11-18. Cal’s inability to get to the line more and keep Stanford away from the line once again came back to bite them.
Probably the biggest issue for Cal is that Kristine Anigwe didn’t produce like she normally does. 12 points and 4 rebounds is nowhere near the level she is used to playing at. When she produces below her normal level, Cal struggles to find ways to overcome it.
“I think it just starts with the double,” Stanford senior Erica McCall said about defending Anigwe. “I mean, I can only do so much with her because she’s such a great player. So, my teammates need to help me out a lot…It was really just a lot of teamwork on defense keeping her high and limiting her to the amount of touches she got.”
Kristine Anigwe has faced double teams all season, but to Stanford’s credit, they found ways to really make her work in both games this week. McCall is one of the top forwards in the country and she showed that this week through her stingy defense on Anigwe. Cal has to be able to get other players open looks when Anigwe gets double teamed, but so far, doing so continues to be a struggle.
Going back to the foul shooting, this is the area that Cal head coach Lindsay Gottlieb was most frustrated with after the game. She was not at all pleased with those numbers, especially since they had made it a focus to get to the line more going into the game.
“I thought we made a concerted effort to be more aggressive tonight,” Gottlieb said with a tone of frustration. “We talked about eighteen to eight in free throws the other night, we wanted to kinda go at them a little bit more, I thought we tried to do that and we still didn’t get to the line. So, I don’t know, there was definitely a moment or two in there when I’m saying ‘Is it really five to one in fouls?’ or ‘They really fouled us one time?’ But I guess I’ll have to go back and look at the film and they’re trying to protect the paint and they’re trying to not let us get around the basket, but I thought once we weren’t sort of getting those calls maybe it affected our willingness to kinda go in there and be as aggressive.”
The lack of trips to the foul line once again hurt Cal and what’s frustrating for them is that this was an area of emphasis going in to the game and it didn’t go the way they would like. It’s really difficult to win games when your opponent is shooting more foul shots and it might as well be the kiss of death when it is happening to you on the road.
Going forward, Cal has to travel to Oregon on Friday and Oregon State on Sunday. Both teams will be very difficult opponents who have a lot to play for. Cal has proven themselves capable of hanging with tough teams, but they have fallen short more often than not. The good news for Cal is that they have two opportunities coming up to get quality road wins. The problem is that they really have their work cut out for them.