On Friday night, Cal women’s basketball fell to Washington by a final score of 80-53 at Haas Pavilion. Washington freshman guard Tameiya Sadler led the way for the Huskies with 21 points while Cal sophomore guard Leilani McIntosh was the top scorer for the Golden Bears with 12 points. Washington improves to 3-0 overall and 1-0 in the Pac-12 while Cal falls to 0-3 overall and 0-1 in the Pac-12.
“We knew that Washington’s pressure would be a struggle,” Cal head coach Charmin Smith said. “Obviously we turned the ball over way too much and we gotta be better with that because we’re pretty young. Gotta get better defending the 3-point line and rebounding.”
Washington got out to a 10-6 lead with 4:22 to go in the 1st quarter. Sadler was up to 5 points early for the Huskies while Leilani McIntosh, Dalayah Daniels, and Evelien Lutje Schipholt each had 2 points for the Bears. At the end of the 1st quarter, Washington would lead 21-14. Sadler was up to 7 points while Daniels and Schipholt each had 4 points. Both teams were shooting 7-13 (53.8%) from the field. The difference was four 3-pointers and three foul shots for Washington.
With 5:26 to go in the half, Washington led 32-22 as Sadler was up to 11 points. Cal needed to defend her better and also get to the foul line. Cal was yet to attempt a foul shot. At halftime, Washington led 38-29. Sadler led the Huskies with 11 points. McIntosh led the Bears with 8 points. Cal’s perimeter defense was really an issue as Washington had made seven 3-pointers.
“We gave Reese some open threes in the first half that are really frustrating for me,” Smith lamented. “On our end, I promise you, if you said, who on your team to shoot a 3-pointer, I’d give you a hundred dollars, I would say Ornella and I’d be comfortable with that bet. She just hasn’t gotten comfortable in the games yet. I think it’s a big adjustment playing at this level and I think once she calms herself and gets more into a rhythm and gets more comfortable, we’ll see the type of shooter that she is because she is a phenomenal shooter.”
Washington got off to a strong start in the 3rd quarter, leading 42-31 with 4:57 to go. Cal was hanging around thanks to their 20-14 scoring edge in the paint and 23-21 rebounding advantage. With 2:12 to go in the quarter, a bucket from McIntosh inside cut Washington’s lead to just four points (44-40). Cal looked like they might make this a game. Unfortunately, Washington closed the quarter out on a 6-0 run to lead 50-40 going into the 4th quarter.
Rather than stopping the bleeding, things got worse for Cal to start the 4th quarter as Washington led 57-40 with 8:17 to go. The Huskies’ 6-0 run ballooned into a 13-0 run behind Sadler’s 21 points. Cal was fading fast.
“We had some stops defensively and we got some good looks and then we went back to struggling to taking care of the ball,” Smith said. “Multiple possessions in a row where we just gave it to them…It’s tough. We’re trying to find things that we can execute and good looks that we can try to take advantage of and we just couldn’t make the accurate pass to get the ball there. Just gotta work on being better with those reads and those passes.”
From there it continued to be one-way traffic for the Huskies, who would walk out of Haas Pavilion with an 80-53 victory. The 4th quarter proved to brutal for the Bears, who got outscored 30-13. And if you go back to the 2:12 mark in the 3rd quarter, Cal got outscored 36-13 from then on out. At the end of the day, this Bears team fought hard, but the absence of so many key players just proved to be too much. With Jazlen Green, Alma Elsnitz, and Cailyn Crocker all done for the season, it’s going to be tough for this Cal team to win any games no matter how hard they battle.
“I think we have a phenomenal group of young women that are extremely coachable,” Smith said. “They’re listening, they’re trying. They’re a pleasure to coach every day. There’s never any negative body language or any of that negative energy. At the same time, we need a little nasty. A little dog in us.”
“So, we do have a really young team and I feel that’s the change,” McIntosh added. “We had a lot of vets last year. It’s in the sophomores’ control to be the leader on the court and being that example for them and making sure that body language is always up and being that vocal point. I feel like it starts with us.”
Up next for Cal is a home game against the Dons of San Francisco on Thursday, December 10th. That game will tipoff at 6:00 PM PST. Cal was supposed to play Washington State on Sunday, but that game has been postponed due to COVID-19 tracing on the Washington State side.
