On Saturday at 2:00 PM PST, #13 ranked Cal women’s basketball will face the Saint Mary’s Gaels at McKeon Pavilion in Moraga, CA. Last season, Cal defeated Saint Mary’s 87-80 in Berkeley. Cal comes into the game with a perfect 7-0 record while Saint Mary’s comes in at 5-2.
Last time out: Cal is coming off a 67-42 victory over Cal State Northridge. Kristine Anigwe had 26 points and 10 rebounds, good enough for her seventh double-double of the season.
RECAP: Cal destroys CSUN behind a career night from Kristine Anigwe
On Saint Mary’s: While not sporting a perfect record like Cal, Saint Mary’s has played a strong schedule. Both of their losses have come to #3 Oregon (55-79) and #8 Oregon State (56-89), so they’ve shown they aren’t afraid to play top competition. Outside of those two games, they’ve handled their business, averaging a +11.4 margin of victory per game.
One key to Saint Mary’s success is the scoring balance that they possess. Senior forward Sydney Raggio (12.0 points), sophomore guard Emily Codding (10.3 points), freshman guard Sam Simons (10.1 points), redshirt junior guard Jasmine Forcadilla (9.6 points), and senior forward Megan McKay (9.4 points) are all doing a good job of sharing the scoring load, making it hard to pick one player to really key on. They’re also doing a good job of scoring from beyond the arc, with three of their top five scorers shooting north of 42.0% from 3-point range.
Another strength of this Saint Mary’s team is their rebounding. They average 38.3 rebounds per game for a solid +5.9 rebounding differential. Megan McKay is averaging 6.1 rebounds per game while Sydney Raggio is averaging 7.7 rebounds per game. Both of those players have a really good nose for the ball and know how to crash the boards.
The major weaknesses of this Saint Mary’s team is their foul shooting and ball security. They’re shooting 62.6% from the foul line while committing 18 turnovers per game. If they could improve in those two areas, they would be a much better team than they already are.
Keys to the Game: If there’s one thing that has proven to work for Cal, it’s been to feed Kristine Anigwe the ball early and often. If Anigwe gets on a roll early and stays out of foul trouble, Cal will be very tough to stop. As good as Saint Mary’s is, they don’t have an answer for Anigwe. Even though it would be nice to see this Cal team not have to rely on Anigwe too much, she seems up to the challenge every game, so why go away from what’s working?
I sound like a broken record for saying this, but Cal keeps making things too interesting in the opening half. While they don’t need to be blowing out Saint Mary’s at halftime, it would be nice if they had a healthy lead. McKeon Pavilion is not a place you want to fall behind in and if Cal struggles in the first half, this could be a game where their slow starts finally catch up with them. If Cal plays well in the first half and doesn’t let Saint Mary’s get into the game, they should have no trouble winning given how much they’ve dominated second halves this season.
A third key to this game for Cal is to defend the 3-point line. Saint Mary’s has proven to find some success from beyond the arc and will look to get some shots from the perimeter to fall so as to not have to score on Anigwe inside. If Cal is able to defend the 3-point line effectively and force Saint Mary’s to go inside, they’ll put themselves in a really good position to win.
Note: Asha Thomas (knee) was cleared to return to practice after undergoing tests and imaging. Below is the team release on Thomas from earlier in the week:
BERKELEY – Cal senior guard Asha Thomas has been cleared to resume practice as tolerated, head coach Lindsay Gottlieb announced on Wednesday. Thomas left the court with an apparent knee injury in the third quarter of Sunday’s win over CSUN, but tests and imaging revealed no acute injury.
