Cal WBB falls to #4 Stanford at Maples
On Sunday, Cal women’s basketball fell to #4 Stanford at Maples Pavilion by a final score of 72-33. Stanford sophomore guard Hannah Jump led the way for the Cardinal with 14 points and 6 rebounds while Stanford senior guard Kiana Williams finished with 12 points and 3 assists. Cal freshman forward Dalayah Daniels was the top performer for the Bears with 11 points and 7 rebounds. Stanford improves to 22-2 overall and 19-2 in the Pac-12 while Cal falls to 1-15 overall and 1-12 in the Pac-12.
“I think we had a great first half,” Cal head coach Charmin Smith said after the game. “We came out and were able to execute some things offensively with pick and roll action with Leilani and Michelle (Ugonne). We did a solid job defensively containing some of their actions and in the second half, I think they were, I dunno, it was a different Stanford team for sure and we had a lot of let downs and break downs that allowed them to get some easy looks.”
Stanford got out to a 9-0 lead to start the game as Cameron Brink, Haley Jones, Kiana Williams, and Ashten Prechtel all scored. With 4:00 to go in the 1st quarter, Cal finally scored off a bucket inside from freshman forward Fatou Samb, making it a 9-2 Stanford lead. To Cal’s credit, they battled back and made it a 12-7 game with under a minute to go in the quarter as Dalayah Daniels and Leilani McIntosh got rolling with some nice buckets of their own.
At the end of the 1st quarter, Stanford led 14-7 after Francesca Belibi got a bucket to beat the buzzer. Stanford was shooting 6-15 (40.0%) from the field while Cal was shooting 3-12 (25.0%). It was a close game so far. The key for Cal was to keep the game close, something they couldn’t do last time.
Cal opened up the 3rd quarter with a driving layup made by McIntosh to make it a 14-9 lead for Stanford. Stanford quickly responded with a triple from Jump, making the score 17-9. Cal head coach Charmin Smith quickly called for time, hoping that it would get her team refocused.
Things didn’t go the way Smith wanted out of that timeout as Stanford’s lead ballooned to a 26-12 lead with 4:41 to go in the half. Smith once again called for time, hoping that her team would find a way to close the gap. This time, the timeout seemed to work as Cal closed the quarter on a 13-5 run. Mia Mastrov knocked down a triple, Ugonne Onyiah got a bucket inside, etc.
As a result, Stanford led 31-25 at halftime. It was a game at Maples Pavilion. Dalayah Daniels got a much needed jumper to beat the buzzer, responding to what Belibi did to close the first quarter. All things considered, Cal had to like where they sat.
In the 3rd quarter, Stanford started to pull away, leading 38-25 with 5:37 to go in the 3rd. Cal called for time, hoping to get back in this one. It had been a nice game for Daniels, who was up to 9 points and 4 rebounds.
Rather than getting back in the game, the wheels totally came off for Cal in the 3rd as Stanford closed the quarter on an 18-0 run, outscoring Cal 27-2 in the quarter as a whole. As a result Stanford led 58-27 going into the 4th quarter. At this point, it was pretty much ball game.
“What we wanted to do was make them work for everything they got,” Smith said. “We did a solid job of that in the first half. Not so good job of that moving forward.”
In the end, Stanford walked out with a comfortable 72-33 victory. Cal battled hard for the first half and gave it their all, but unfortunately, a putrid 3rd quarter sank them. You can’t expect to beat anyone when you get walloped like that.
Up next for Cal is the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas. Who they will play is to be determined, but it is confirmed that they’ll be playing in the 12/5 matchup as the #12 seed. We’ll keep you posted on who they’ll play and at what time.
“We want to win,” Smith said of the upcoming tournament. “We’ve seen some of these teams multiple times and we think we are much better than we were in January. Even just two weeks ago. And so we’re going to Vegas trying to win a game and see how long we can stay. We got a lot of growth on this team and we’re just going to keep fighting.”