Recap: Cal defeats UNC after second half surge

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Published Mar 23, 2019

Recap: Cal defeats UNC after second half surge

Ben Parker • GoldenBearReport

Golden Bear Report

@slamdunk406

On Saturday, Cal women’s basketball defeated North Carolina 92-72 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Asha Thomas (19 points) and Kristine Anigwe (18 points & 22 rebounds) led the way for the Golden Bears while Paris Kea (22 points) led the Tarheels. Cal outscored North Carolina 55-32 in the second half. Cal’s next game is on Monday against #1 Baylor at 6:00 PM PST on ESPN.

North Carolina got off to a strong start in this game, leading 15-4 with 3:37 to go in the first quarter. Janelle Bailey had 5 points for the Tarheels while Jaelyn Brown was the only player on the board for the Golden Bears. The Tarheels did a great job of defending Anigwe early, denying entry passes and not letting her get anything easy inside.

Cal would wake up briefly, going on a 7-2 run to cut North Carolina’s lead to 6 points (17-11) before North Carolina closed out the quarter on a 5-0 run. With Anigwe still yet to score, Cal was in trouble early, trailing 22-11 at the end of the first quarter.

With 4:00 to go in the second quarter, North Carolina continued to lead, up 32-25. Shayla Bennett was up to 9 points and 2 rebounds for the Tarheels while Thomas was up to 7 points for the Golden Bears. Cal was starting to come back, but they were still in a hole.

Cal would shave North Carolina’s lead down to four points (36-32) with 2:15 to go in the half as Thomas continued to will the Golden Bears back into the game. As a result of her persistence, Cal would trail by just three points (40-37) at halftime. At the break, it was Thomas (11 points) and Receé Caldwell ( 7 points) that led Cal while Bennett (11 points) was leading the way for the Tarheels.

As well as Thomas and Caldwell were playing to keep Cal in the game, it was clear that if Cal was to win, they would have to get a lot more out of Anigwe, who had just 2 points to go along with 10 rebounds. Her rebounding was solid, but her scoring was nowhere near where Cal needed it to be.

With 4:48 to go in the third quarter, it continued to go North Carolina’s way as they led 50-47. Bennett, Koenen, and Bailey each had 11 points for the Tarheels while Thomas was up to 13 points for the Golden Bears. As for Anigwe, she had just 5 points and 11 rebounds. With her still pretty quiet, Cal was unable to take the lead.

Cal wouldn’t trail for much longer as they finished out the quarter on a 16-6 run to go up 63-56. The quarter finished on a beautiful buzzer beater from Jaelyn Brown that was perfectly drawn up from Lindsay Gottlieb. With 3.8 seconds left in the quarter, Cal had the ball on the other end of the court. Caldwell inbounded the ball to CJ West who flea flicked the ball back to her. Caldwell then threw the ball over the half-court line to Brown who in perfect stride knocked down a wide open 3-pointer like a wide receiver heading for the end zone. That play really energized Cal and set the tone for the fourth quarter. As for Anigwe, she was up to 7 points, slowly starting to find her groove.

In the fourth quarter, Cal started to blow things wide open, building on the momentum that they created in the third quarter. With 7:00 to go, the were up 70-58 as Anigwe once again had a double-double (12 points & 19 rebounds). En route to her double-double, Anigwe set the Pac-12 single-season record for most rebounds in a season (520). With 6:03 to go, Cal was now up 75-58 as Thomas was up to 19 points. As for West, she was doing damage as well with 13 points and 7 rebounds.

With just one minute to go, Cal led 90-71 after McKenzie Forbes made four consecutive foul shots, which would serve as an icing on the cake. In the end, Cal won 92-72, dominating North Carolina 55-32 in the second half and 29-16 in the fourth quarter.

After getting out of the gates a bit slow, Cal found a way to finish the game strong, getting a little bit of help from everybody. While Anigwe and Thomas were once again the top performers on the stat sheet, it was Brown that really changed the game with her buzzer beater at the end of the third quarter. She finished with 16 points and played a great game from the opening tip, scoring the first four points of the game for Cal.