After defeating UC Riverside 71-56 on Friday morning in the third annual School Haas Rock, Cal women’s basketball will hit the hardwood on Sunday afternoon to take on the 1-2 CSU-Bakersfield Roadrunners at 2:00 PM PST at Haas Pavilion. The Roadrunners’ lone win on the season is a 58-51 victory over Hawaii while their two losses come to Southern Utah (home) and Oregon (away).

While this is a game that Cal should win fairly easily, they do have to be wary of CSU-Bakersfield junior guard Aja Williams, who is averaging 19.3 points and 5.7 rebounds per game. Williams is shooting a solid 37.9% from 3-pooint range, making her a legit threat from beyond the arc. The number one task the Golden Bears have to accomplish in this game is making sure that Aja Williams earns every bucket she gets and is forced to rely more on her teammates to get the win. If Cal prevents Aja Williams from having a big day, they’ll almost certainly have this game won.

In addition to containing Aja Williams, Cal also really needs to continue their dominance on the glass. Cal is grabbing 39.7 rebounds per game to their opponents' 34.7 rebounds while CSU-Bakersfield’s rebounding numbers are almost flipped. The Roadrunners are grabbing 35.3 rebounds per game while their opponents get 42.3 rebounds per game. Given these numbers, look for Cal to have at least a +10 advantage on the glass in this game and perhaps more.

While Kristine Anigwe (9.3 RPG) is one of the best rebounders in the country, she alone isn’t responsible for Cal’s stellar rebounding performance. She gets a lot of help from the likes of Mikayla Cowling (6.7 RPG), Courtney Range (6.0 RPG), and Penina Davidson (3.3 RPG). Like the men’s basketball team, Cal women’s basketball does a good job at team rebounding, which means everyone on the team contributes to the rebounding efforts. Cal’s strong rebounding abilities should prove to serve them well against a team that has so far struggled in this capacity.

While I don’t want to necessarily overlook this game and look ahead to their weekend tournament, I will say that this game is a good chance for Cal to continue to find themselves and get more comfortable with their new pieces in Jaelyn Brown, Mi’Cole Cayton, and CJ West. Cal has to take advantage of games like this to get a big lead and let their role players get more comfortable playing with each other. There’s still a lot that Cal needs to figure out just in terms of getting Mi’Cole Cayton to play well with Asha Thomas as well as figuring out a rotation that works and maximizes the team’s potential. Look for Cal to win this one by a comfortable score of 69-53 with Kristine Anigwe having her way inside.