On Friday, #24 Cal women’s basketball fell to Arizona by a final score of 60-55. Arizona guard Aari McDonald was the top performer for the game, finishing with 36 points on 11-17 shooting from the field and 5-8 shooting from 3-point range. Cal forward Kristine Anigwe finished with 19 points and 20 rebounds. Arizona improves to 13-2 overall and 3-1 in the Pac-12 while Cal falls to 10-4 overall and 1-2 in the Pac-12.

Defending Aari McDonald was priority number one for Cal and they did not do a good job of containing her from the opening tip. McDonald made her first three shots of the game for a total of 8 points, getting Arizona up 14-9 with 4:11 to go in the 1st quarter. While 3-point shooting isn’t her forte (31.4%), two of her first three shots were 3-pointers.

After that hot start, McDonald didn’t score the rest of the quarter. Kristine Anigwe got a couple of buckets to drop and Cal was starting to settle in a bit, trailing 19-13 after the 1st quarter. It wasn’t the type of start Cal was hoping for, but there was still plenty of time to get things going.

Cal opened up the 2nd quarter on a 5-0 run, forcing Arizona to call for time with 7:55 to go in the half. Down 19-18, Cal looked like they might finally get their first lead of the game. Unfortunately for Cal, their offense went stupid the rest of the half, resulting in a 14-1 Arizona run before Receé Caldwell made a 3-pointer to make it a 14-4 run instead.

After having a quiet end to the 1st quarter, Aari McDonald would heat up once again, going into halftime with 14 points on 5-7 shooting from the field. Down 33-22 at halftime, Cal once again found themselves in a hole with no easy way out. Kristine Anigwe was the top performer for Cal with 8 points and 10 rebounds, but she wasn’t getting the help she needed.

With 7:27 to go in the 3rd quarter, the score was still 33-22 as both teams couldn’t find a way to score. Cal was taking contested shots and forcing the ball into Anigwe when nothing was there while Arizona was chucking up enough bricks to make a house. It was an ugly start, but fortunately for Arizona they still had a double digit lead.

Shortly thereafter, both teams started to get things going a bit offensively. With 3:10 to go in the 3rd quarter, Arizona held a 38-29 lead behind 17 points from Aari McDonald while Receé Caldwell was the top scorer for Cal with 9 points after making a 3-pointer. Cal was starting to show signs of life and wound end up going on a 12-0 run to cut Arizona’s lead to just two points before McDonald would make a crucial 3-pointer to give Arizona a 41-36 lead heading into the 4th quarter.

In the 4th quarter, it became a back and forth type of game, especially between McDonald and Anigwe. Every time one player would score, it felt like the other had an answer on the other end. With 4:19 to go in the game, McDonald was up to 29 points while Anigwe was up to 17 points. Both players were doing all they could to get their team the win.

After Dominique McBryde converted a 3-point play to put Arizona up 53-49, Asha Thomas and Kristine Anigwe would each score for Cal to tie the game up 53-53 with 1:08 to go. Once again, Arizona relied on their star guard Aari McDonald to step up and she did just that, drawing a foul on Anigwe and knocking down a pair of free throws to give her team a 55-53 lead. Down by 2 with the ball, Cal was unable to tie up the game after Receé Caldwell missed what would have been a game-tying jumper. From there, Arizona was able to play the foul game and walk out with a 60-55 win.

What makes this loss disappointing for Cal is the way in which they lost the game. Arizona’s a good team and deserves a ton of credit for getting the win. However, Cal knew that Aari McDonald was going to be their go-to player and they were unable to contain her. On top of that, they once again dug themselves a hole that they weren’t able to get out of. These are the kind of things that can’t keep happening if you expect to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.

Up next for Cal is a road game on Sunday at Arizona State. That game will tipoff at 4:00 PM PST on Pac-12 Networks.