On Sunday, Cal women’s basketball defeated Washington 79-70 to complete their home sweep of the Washington schools. Kristine Anigwe led the way for Cal with 30 points and 18 rebounds on 13-18 shooting from the field and 4-4 shooting from the foul line while Amber Melgoza was the top performer for Washington with 27 points and 5 rebounds on 10-22 shooting from the field and 4-4 shooting from 3-point range. Cal improves to 12-5 overall and 3-3 in the Pac-12 while Washington falls to 8-11 overall and 1-6 in the Pac-12.
“Any home or road sweep weekend in this conference is huge,” Cal head coach Lindsay Gottlieb said after the game. “That’s a team that’s as we know way better than their record. They’re incredibly dangerous and they shot the ball well today. So, I’m thankful for the win and so proud of our kids. They just handled this week better than I could have imagined. I think our leadership from our seniors is phenomenal and I think the buy in from everyone else is incredible as well. Sometimes it shows up on the stat sheet like today. Our stat sheet is pretty: 53 percent, 40 percent from three, and 87 percent from the line. It can look like that sometimes. But I felt something the entire time.
“I think our shooters made shots, I think AT did what she needed to do, and I told Kristine, she’s had video game numbers for her whole career, but I don’t know if she played better basketball than this weekend given how much we needed the two wins and how efficient she was and dominant. So, this was a great team win and something I’m really proud of and we’ll build from here and hopefully take the positive energy on the road.”
Washington got off to a strong start in this game, leading 16-14 with 2:21 to go in the 1st quarter. Amber Melgoza had 5 early points for the Huskies while Kristine Anigwe had 8 points and 6 rebounds. Containing Melgoza was the goal, but Cal wasn’t able to do so from the start of the game, allowing the Huskies to keep the game close early on. Thanks to 5 more points from Melgoza, the Huskies were able to take a 21-20 lead at the end of the 1st quarter, making the game much closer than expected.
With 4:46 to go in the 2nd quarter, the game was still close as Cal had a 28-26 lead. Kristine Anigwe had 14 points, but she wasn’t getting much help from teammates. Kianna Smith was in a nice rhythm with 5 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 assists, but others needed to step up. During the rest of the half, the game would remain a back and forth affair and enter halftime tied 33-33. If it wasn’t for Anigwe’s strong first half (14 points on 7-10 shooting from the field), Cal would have been in a lot of trouble.
The biggest issue Cal had during the first half was their inability to defend the perimeter and get to the foul line. Cal shot 0-1 from the line and allowed Washington to shoot 7-12 (58.3%) from 3-point range. If Cal was to pull away in the 2nd half, they were going to have to do a much better job in these two areas.
During the 3rd quarter, it was pretty much the Kristine Anigwe/Amber Melgoza show. With 2:49 to go in the quarter, Washington led 46-45 as Melgoza and Anigwe each had 20 points. At the conclusion of the quarter, Washington slightly expanded their lead 51-49 thanks to 4-8 shooting from 3-point range. Cal wasn’t able to figure out how to better defend the perimeter, resulting in their continued struggles.
“So here’s the thing, she’s tough to stop no matter what,” Lindsay Gottlieb said of Melgoza. “But if there’s any kind of chink, a little bit this year in her armor is that her three-point percentage wasn’t as high. So she’s going to go 4-4 from three. She’s a darn good scoring guard. You talk about how good this league is. We said we want to be multiple possessions ahead because you don’t want to put the ball in the hands of a great scorer and have to hope. Kudos to her.
“I think actually we did a nice job around the basket with her, making some shots tough I think with our zone. Then there’s different looks because sometimes she’s coming in against KA and did some switching and stuff, but she took advantage any time that she had an open look. She’s a really tremendous scorer and so it doesn’t surprise us, but it was good that we could withstand her having a really nice day from behind the arc, especially.”
It wasn’t until the 4th quarter that Cal finally started to gain some separation. With 6:14 to go in the game, Cal led 61-54 thanks to the continued dominance of Kristine Anigwe (28 points & 17 rebounds) and the emergence of Receé Caldwell who nailed a huge 3-pointer to give Cal a 7 point lead. Caldwell would finish the game with 15 points on 5-7 shooting from the field and 3-5 shooting from 3-point range. Without her burst in the 4th quarter, Cal may not have won this game.
“We have five people on the court that are scoring threats at all times,” Caldwell said. “Also, I feel like when we penetrate, we can cause rotations and you have to honor one person. Another one flies out and it’s open shots for everybody. I think we’re playing as a group and we’re starting to feel our flow as a team and I think we’re seeing that now with this weekend.”
After Asha Thomas made her 200th career 3-pointer, it looked like Cal finally had the game in the bag up 70-60 with 1:57 to go. However, Washington quickly went on a 5-0 run thanks to a layup from Darcy Reese and a 3-pointer from Mai-Loni Henson. Up 70-65 with 1:05 to go, the clock was on Cal’s side, but they would have to put the game away at the foul line. After handling their business at the charity stripe, Cal walked out with a 79-70 win, completing a much needed home sweep. While the 3rd quarter didn’t yield the type of fruit that it usually does, the 4th quarter belonged to Cal as they outscored Washington 30-19.
“It’s exactly what we’ve been talking about,” Lindsay Gottlieb said of weathering the storm of Washington’s 3-point shooting (13-23). “This conference has so many people who can make plays and so many teams that are good offensively. So we need to lock in and get stops. When we can and when we need to get stops, but you also need to be able to score. It’s really important that it didn’t faze us. We talked about them making threes, we talked about how we could defend better and all that kind of stuff, but I think that just our connectedness and our ability to keep scoring, not turn the ball over, be tough through every possession. It was there. We felt it. There was a really good vibe the whole time and it started with our seniors and everybody else was involved.”
For Kristine Anigwe, it was just another day at the office, but the numbers she’s putting up are truly phenomenal. When asked about it after the game, she made it clear that what we’re seeing from her is a product of hard work and a determination to do whatever her team needs.
“For me I know the game plan is probably to try to frustrate me or put the post player sagging on me and play really physical,” Anigwe said. “So, I just try to go for boards, trusting that my teammates can make the open shot or can make a play. Like what Receé said, we’re in such a really really really good flow. I feel like we know when to shoot, we know when to kick it in. We know if there’s three people on me like, cut off me and they’ll be open, and I think we’re playing really well together. I think for me, I’m just really focusing on if I’m not going to get easy touches, then go rebound. Just make a play.”
Anigwe’s play isn’t just incredible on offense. She’s a force on defense as well, blocking two shots today. Improving her defense is something she’s been focusing on, following a little challenge from a friend.
“During the summer, one of my friends had told me that I don’t block enough shots, I’m like what are you talking about,” Anigwe said with a chuckle. “He’s like you don’t block shots, you don’t get low enough to play defense. And so, I just really took it, I was like ok, I’m just gonna get low and then if the ball comes up I’m going to try to contest and it was leading to block shots and it was leading to just getting stops. I feel like I’m playing the best defense I ever have. I feel like I’m getting on the glass. I feel like we play really good collectively as a unit, so it’s making me step up and play good defense, so we can get stops.”
Up next for Cal is a road trip to the Rocky Mountains to face Utah and Colorado. Up first will be Utah on Friday. That game will tipoff at 6:00 PM PST on Pac-12 Networks.
