On Sunday at 1:00 PM PST on Cal Live Stream, Cal women’s basketball will welcome Arizona State to Haas Pavilion. Cal comes in at 0-14 overall and 0-11 in the Pac-12 while Arizona State comes in at 10-8 overall and 5-8 in the Pac-12.

Last time out: On Friday, Cal lost to #10 Arizona by a final score of 59-50. Cal freshman Dalayah Daniels had a career-high 24 points to along with 10 rebounds.

RECAP: Cal WBB comes close to shocking #10 Arizona

Previous meeting with Arizona State: In their previous meeting with Arizona State on New Year’s Day, Cal fell to Arizona State by a final score of 56-53. Dalayah Daniels finished with 20 points and 6 rebounds.

RECAP: Cal WBB loses hard fought game at ASU

On Arizona State: The Sun Devils have had a rough season by their standards. They’re nowhere the near the ranked team that they’ve used to being. They’ve also had to deal with a lot of postponements on their ends as well. That said, they remain a difficult team because of their defense and the fact that Charli Turner Thorne always gets her teams to play hard.

Junior guard Taya Hanson continues to lead this Sun Devils team, averaging 12.4 points and 4.4 rebounds per game while freshman guard Jaddan Simmons averages 10.7 points per game. The two of them are having solid seasons and doing their part to keep their team competitive.

As a team, the Sun Devils average 54.2 points per game on 33.0% shooting from the field, 25.3% shooting from 3-point range, and 71.8% shooting from the foul line. They average a +0.6 rebound margin, 11.2 assists, 8.7 steals, 1.9 blocks, and 16.0 turnovers per game. Their opponents are averaging 56.8 points per game on 39.8% shooting from the field, 30.9% shooting from 3-point range, and 68.9% shooting from the foul line.

Keys to the game: For Cal, the first thing they need to do is value every possession. This is always true to value each possession, but against a defensive oriented Sun Devils team that slows the pace down and keeps games in the mid 50s, you have to really treasure each possession and make sure you get good looks. Cal did a solid job of this on Friday against Arizona, so hopefully they can continue that trend on Sunday.

Secondly, Cal needs to get some threes to drop. On Friday, Cal shot 1-12 from deep, which just isn’t going to get it done. Had they shot even 3-12, they may have pulled off the upset. If Cal can knock down their threes at a healthier clip, that will go a long ways towards winning this game.

Finally, Cal needs to keep the intensity and positivity up. So long as they keep that belief up and continue to fight, they’ll give themselves a shot to win. It’s cliché, but it’s really true.

Prediction: It’s hard to pick Cal to win any games this year since they are yet to win one. That said, I was sensing a win at Utah before the COVID pause since they seemed like they were starting to figure things out. In a similar fashion, Friday’s game against Arizona seemed like a mini breakthrough where they at least were starting show signs of gelling as a team and coming together. They nearly beat Arizona State on the road earlier this year and I think against them on Sunday in Berkeley, they’ll find a way to sneak it out. Cal 56 Arizona State 54 is my prediction for this game.