Cal Women Beat Georgia Tech to Help Their NCAA Tournament Chances

The Cal women moved a small step closer to an NCAA tournament berth by hanging on to beat Georgia Tech 63-56 on Thursday night in Atlanta, Georgia.

Cal's Gisella Maul, who moved into the starting lineup when Puff Morris was sidelined with a knee injury, was the clutch performer for the Bears. She finsihed with 17 points, 13 rebounds and five assists, and nine of her points came in the final six minutes when the Bears were holding off the Yellow Jackets' surge.

“She's [Gisella] been a rock for us and instrumental in our wins and what she's doing for our team,” Cal head coach Charmin Smith said. “I'm really happy for her, to see her out there, contributing and having an impact, the way that she has with her third double-double now. She’s really helping our team and I know her teammates are happy for her as well.”

The win was an important one for Cal (14-10, 5-6 ACC), which has now won four of its past five games and has put itself in contention for an NCAA tournament berth. .

The Bears were No. 54 in the NET rankings entering Thursday’s action. This week’s ESPN Bracketology projected the Bears to be among the Next Four Out, which puts them just outside of the field but within reach of an NCAA tournament berth if they get some good wins down the stretch.

Beating Georgia Tech (10-14, 5-7 ACC) will not help the Bears' postseason hopes a lot because the Yellow Jackets entered the day ranked 94th in the NET. It does give Cal a Quad 2 victory, but the Bears need some Quad 1 wins, and the Bears don't have many of those left on the schedule. Cal is 0-8 in games against Quad 1 opponents so far this season.

However, the Bears did pick up a road victory, which improves their road record to 2-5, and that will help their resume.

Cal again played without two starters, who sat out with injuries. Freshman forward Taylor Barnes was sidelined for the second straight game with an ankle injury, and Puff Morris missed her 10th consecutive game with a knee injury.

Nonetheless, Cal led for nearly the entire game on Thursday. Georgia Tech's only lead came at 2-0 48 seconds into the game. Cal then took control and led by 11 points late in the second quarter, and held a six-point advantage after three quarters thanks to Lola Donez's three-pointer from about 40 feet away at the buzzer to end the third quarter.

Georgia Tech got the deficit down to two points at 48-46 with 6:15 left in the game, but Maul answered with a bucket to get the margin back to four points. She added an inside basket at the 3:30 mark to push a three-point Cal lead to five points, then produced the most important basket of the game when she sank a long three-point shot to give Cal a 57-51 advantage with 2:40 to go.

Gorgia Tech cut the Cal lead to 59-56 with 1:03 remaining, but again Maul delivered, Her bucket with 35.4 seconds left made it a five-point lead, and Cal was able to hang on from there.

Maul, a junior, was not the only Cal player with a double-double as center Sakima Walkers produced 15 points and 10 boards, while Mjracle Sheppard finished with 13 points and five assists. Cal outrebounded Georgia Tech 41-31 and scored 34 points in the paint. Cal was just 5-for-19 from long range, but Georgia Tech was worse, hitting just 4 of 16 three-point attempts.

Cal dominated the boards in the first half, which ended with the Bears holding a 33-24 lead.

Cal outrebounded Georgia Tech 26-12 in the first half, including 10-3 on the offensive boards. It helped the Bears outscore the Yellow Jackets 10-2 on second-chance points.

Cal held a 17-15 lead early in the second quarter before going on a 12-3 run that ended with a Lulu Twidale three-point shot that gave the Bears a 29-18 lead with 3:01 left in the second quarter.

The Bears made a concerted effort to go inside, and they scored 20 points in the paint in the first half.

Twidale had eight points in the first half, and Talayah Walker and Jada Crawshaw had six points apiece for Georgia Tech. Walker is the Yellow Jackets’ top scorer, and she had all six of her points in the first six minutes of the game.

Cal committed 11 turnovers in the first half, but still led by nine points at halftime.

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