After spending 21 days in isolation and quarantine, Cal women’s basketball returned to action on Friday night against Utah in Berkeley. Utah won 62-51. Utah sophomore guard Kemery Martin led the way for the Utes with 21 points while Cal freshman guard Mia Mastrov had 20 points and 6 rebounds in her Bears debut. Utah improves to 5-10 overall and 4-10 in the Pac-12 while Cal falls to 0-12 overall and 0-9 in the Pac-12.
“Gosh, I think we really had an opportunity to take a step back in terms of what we’re doing in practice,” Cal head coach Charmin Smith said of what the last 21 days were like. “We were forced to go non-contact for a little bit of that time. Just working on individual improvement and stepping back to the team was a good thing for sure. This team has been focused and they’re eager to learn every single day. It’s just getting it to translate on game day against really good competition.”
Cal got out to a 6-3 lead with 4:58 to go in the 1st quarter. Cal was on a 6-0 run over the last 1:52. Evelien Lute Schipholt had 3 points early for the Bears on a 3-point play. Mia Mastrov was already making her presence felt with a triple of her own.
At the end of the 1st quarter, the game was tied 13-13. Mastrov was leading the way for Cal with 6 points on 2-4 shooting from the field and 2-3 shooting from 3-point range. Niyah Becker had 4 points for Utah. Utah was shooting 6-15 (40.0%) from the field while Cal was shooting 5-14 (35.7%).
With 6:24 to go in the half, Utah was up 23-17. Utah was starting to heat up, having made 4 of their last 5 field goals. Martin was up to 10 points for Utah on 4-6 shooting from the field. She was in the zone.
At halftime, Utah led 36-26. Martin was up to 12 points for Utah while Mastrov had 11 points for Cal. Utah outscored Cal 23-13 in the 2nd quarter, doing a nice job of gaining separation.
“We had some lapses in the second quarter in our transition defense,” Smith admitted. “Let them get out for some easy baskets in transition. Their second chance points I believe at halftime, they had 10 second chance points already. Keeping them off the o-boards and stopping them in transition wasn’t something we weren’t doing well in that quarter. We just got to get more production. Got to get more scoring. Just missing some open looks, bobbling the ball, we just got to be more aggressive offensively.”
The 3rd quarter was a back and forth affair as Utah led 46-35 with 4:36 to go in the quarter. Martin was up to 15 points for Utah while Mastrov was up to 16 points for Cal. In her first game in a Bears uniform, she was leading the team in scoring. Pretty impressive and also indicative of how others needed to step up around her.
At the end of the 3rd quarter, Utah led 51-39. Martin and Mastrov both had 18 points for their respective teams. Cal had played Utah tight except for the 2nd quarter. It was just a matter of whether or not they could make up that ground in the 4th quarter.
“I think I might have had 15 practices, but I wasn’t too surprised,” Mastrov said of her performance. “I’ve been working really hard. I was trying to focus on being consistent in practice.”
“In the moment, a couple of the shots like the right handed step back thing-a-ma-jig she did, they caught me a little off guard, but thinking about it now, that’s what we expected,” Smith said of her new freshman’s debut. “We need Mia to be a scorer. She’s been killing it in practice. I’m glad she was able to really start off on the right foot.”
With 5:55 to go, Utah led 54-47 after Cal got within four points (51-47) of the lead. Cal was starting to make a bit of a comeback. Dalayah Daniels was up to 6 points for Cal, trying to get in a groove. If she, Ugonne Onyiah (8 points), and Evelien Lute Schiphol (6 points) could get rolling inside, that opened up a path to victory for Cal.
However, that would be the closest Cal would get as Utah walked out with a 62-51 victory. Cal played Utah tough for three quarters, but one quarter got away from them and that was all that was needed to lose the game.
For Cal, this game is a mixed bag. On the positive side, Mia Mastrov looks like a keeper. Scoring 20 points in her first collegiate/Pac-12 game is impressive. At the same time, it’s disappointing that she wasn’t able to get more help. Ideally, she wouldn’t need to carry the load in her first game. Others need to play better going forward.
“I graduated, the first week of January, I think. Yeah. My first day of classes was when the semester began,” Mastrov said of how the adjustment to Cal is going. “Honestly, all my classes are pretty difficult compared to my high school. I’m still adjusting to that, but they’re all very interesting.”
Up next for Cal is another home game against Colorado on Super Bowl Sunday. That game will tipoff at 1:00 PM PST on Cal Live Stream.