Cal Women's Basketball: Bears Rally but Lose to San Francisco

Cal's women's basketball team played without point guard Leilani McIntosh on Thursday, and the Bears slipped to 0-4 with a 67-62 loss to San Francisco at Haas Pavilion.

McIntosh, the only returning starter from last season, sat out with a concussion sustained in the previous game, and coach Charmin Smith was not sure she will be available for Sunday night's home game against No. 1 Stanford.

But even without McIntosh, Cal rallied from a 15-point second-quarter deficit to nearly pull out the win.

"I thought today was one of those character-identifying moments where you could see who we are trying to be," Smith said.

Cal freshman Dalayah Daniels scored a season-high 24 points, and sophomore Evelien Lutje-Schipholt added 20 points and 10 rebounds. Lutje-Schipholt gave Cal its first and only lead at the 2:01 mark of the fourth quarter when her basket gave the Bears a 59-58 lead. She failed to complete a three-point play when she missed the accompanying free throw.

The Bears' lead last just seven seconds as USF (1-2) regained the advantage on a three-pointer by Ioanna Krimili, who finished with 26 points.

Daniels brought the Cal back to within a point with a three-point play at the 32-second mark, and after Krimili hit two free throws with 17.7 seconds left to make it 65-62 USF lead, Cal freshman Ornela Muca got a good look at a potential game-tying three-point shot. But the shot did not go down with six seconds remaining.

"We feel a lot better about this loss than we do our other ones, because we showed that we actually wanted it," Daniels said.

Perimeter shooting was an issue the entire game for Cal, which was just 3-for-22 from three-point range.

The Bears also committed 18 turnovers, although they had just five after halftime. Their 13 first-half turnovers helped the Dons take a 15-point lead with 3:13 left in the first half.

Cal's starting lineup consisted of freshman Dalayah Daniels, senior Archer Olson, freshman Ornela Muca, sophomore Evelien Lutje-Schipholt and freshman Fatou Samb.

Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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