On Sunday, Cal women’s basketball fell to #1 Stanford by a final score of 83-38. Stanford sophomore forward Francesca Belibi led the way for the Cardinal with 14 points and 8 rebounds while Cal freshman forward Ugonne (Michelle) Onyiah was the top performer for the Golden Bears with 9 points and 11 rebounds. Stanford improves to 4-0 overall and 2-0 in the Pac-12 while Cal falls to 0-5 overall and 0-2 in the Pac-12.
This game was an historic game for Bay Area college basketball as Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer tied the late Pat Summitt for most wins in women’s college basketball history with 1,098 career wins. After the game, Cal head coach Charmin Smith, who was a standout player for VanDerveer at Stanford, started off by congratulating her former coach.
"Just wanna first congratulate Tara on tying Pat for all-time winningest coach,” Smith said. “Obviously I’m really happy for her and I don’t know anyone who’s done better. Just wanted to start with that.”
As far as how the game itself played out, Smith saw some good things from her team even in defeat. They battled hard and played for the full 40 minutes, which is as much as she could expect from her team given their obvious limitations due to injury and youth.
“In terms of the game and our team, I thought we saw some bright spots from a few people,” Smith said. “We just gotta continue to progress and build this thing and hopefully we can get everyone on fire at the same time to put together a really productive game as a whole.”
Stanford got out to a 12-0 lead with 4:50 to go in the 1st quarter. Belibi was in a groove early for the Cardinal with 6 points on 3-4 shooting from the field. Stanford was looking like a #1 ranked team while Cal was looking like a team that was severely undermanned.
At the end of the 1st quarter, Stanford led 16-4. Belibi still was top scorer for the Cardinal with her 6 points while freshmen Dalayah Daniels (3 points) and Ugonne Onyiah (1 point) were on the board for the Bears. Cal was shooting 1-11 from the field. They had some good looks, but they just didn’t drop. It seemed like nerves were getting the best of this young Bears team early. Cal needed to calm down and take a deep breath.
With 4:33 to go in the half, Stanford led 30-10. Stanford was shooting a slightly underwhelming 14-32 (43.8%) from the field. Every trip down the floor was a struggle for Cal, who was shooting 3-18 (16.7%) from the field. One thing that didn’t help Cal was the fact that sophomore forward Evelien Lutje Schipholt already had three fouls. With her having to sit and Leilani McIntosh once again out due to concussion protocol, Cal was even more undermanned than they already expected to be.
At halftime, Stanford led 44-15, closing the half out on a 7-0 run. Francesca Belibi was up to 14 points and 6 rebounds after throwing down her first career dunk. Stanford freshman Cameron Brink had 11 points. As for Cal, Ugonne Onyiah was the top performer with 4 points and 6 rebounds. She was battling hard along with the rest of her teammates. Effort was not an issue.
“My teammates really helped me,” Onyiah said. “I’m proud of our team that we played hard enough and felt good about this game.”
With 5:16 to go in the 3rd quarter, Stanford led 49-21. Cal was leading the quarter 6-5. We were at the point where if they could just win one quarter, that would be a moral victory. As for Onyiah, she was up to 8 points and 8 rebounds. On the other side, Belibi and Brink each had 14 points, continuing to do their thing for the Cardinal.
At the end of the 3rd quarter, Stanford led 59-23 having had the game in the bag since halftime. Stanford ended up winning the 3rd quarter 15-8, closing out the quarter on an 8-0 run. It continued to be a silent night for Lutje Schipholt who had 0 points and 4 personal fouls. Her inability to get into a groove really hurt this depleted Bears team.
One bright spot to start off the 4th quarter for Cal was the appearance of junior guard Sierra Richey, who has been dealing with back issues. Given how undermanned this Cal team is, every able body they can get is a blessing from above. With 4:29 to go, Stanford continued to lead 73-24. Things were going as expected.
In the end, Stanford walked out with an 83-38 victory. Their goal was to come in and give Cal no hope for victory and they accomplished that goal in spades. As for Cal, being so undermanned against the top team in the country made this game nearly an impossible fight for them to win. That said, they battled hard, gave it their all, and got some good production from freshmen who are going to be key to them turning this program around in the future.
Up next for Cal is a road game at UCLA on Saturday at 12:00 PM PST. That game will air on Pac-12 Networks.
