Cal Coach Charmin Smith: `We Need to be Playing Better'

Scoreless over the final 1:52, the Cal women suffered their second defeat of the season, losing 58-50 to unbeaten Auburn on Wednesday night in the second game of the Hoopfest Women’s Challenge at Frisco, Teas.

The Bears (6-2) trailed just 43-40 entering the fourth quarter, and they pulled within 51-49 after a layup by Gisela Maul with 2:31 to play.

Mjracle Sheppard made one of two free throws with 1:52 left, keeping the Bears down just 53-50. But the Tigers (8-0) scored the game’s final eight points to hold on.

Lulu Twidale led Cal with 18 points, while freshman Taylor Barnes had nine points and nine rebounds and Sheppard added eight points and eight rebounds.

“I thought we've been inconsistent for some time now and Auburn was able to make us pay in a way that other teams haven't recently, so it’s unfortunate,” said Cal coach Charmin Smith, whose team returns to action on Dec. 4 at Missouri in the ACC/SEC Challenge.

“We need to be playing better, and hopefully we'll grow from this and be ready for our trip to Missouri. I thought we had a lot of open looks that we are capable of making and didn't take advantage of them.

“In the second half I thought they changed some of their matchups and made it a little bit tougher, but we still had opportunities for people, and we weren't able to convert. Credit to them for playing with a level of intensity throughout the game and it's something that we need to do.”

Cal outrebounded Auburn 39-26 but shot just 34 percent from the field, including 29 percent on 3-pointers.

A’riel Jackson scored 17 points for Auburn and teammate Kaitlyn Duhon, while scoring just one point, had seven steals.

Cal won its first game in the event, beating Grand Canyon 68-63 on Monday.

Follow Jeff Faraudo on Twitter, Facebook and Bluesky

Recent articles:

Third football commit flips after Justin Wilcox firing

SMU beat writer answer five questions about Cal's next opponent

Cal upsets No. 18 UCLA in basketball

Cal QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele will factor into coach search

GM Ron Rivera explains his plan for finding Cal's next coach

Cal could be headed to the Hawaii Bowl