Cal Women Come Alive From 3-Point Arc, Rout Charlotte

The Cal women’s basketball team found its 3-point eye after three tough outings and rode long-range shooting to a 69-44 victory over Charlotte in the opening game of the Raising the B.A.R. Invitational at Haas Pavilion on Saturday.

The Bears (3-1) made just one of their first 10 shots from the 3-point arc before hitting 11 of them the rest of the way to move into Sunday evening’s championship game against Harvard (2-2), which beat Oakland 93-55 in the late semifinal.

Junior guard Mjracle Sheppard, a transfer from LSU, connected on 3 for 3 from deep and and matched her career hgh with 16 points while adding six rebounds and five steals. Freshman Puff Morris was 5 for 10 on 3’s while scoring 17 points and also contributed eight rebounds and five assists.

Freshman forward Taylor Barnes provided 13 points and six rebounds for Cal, which played without junior starting guard Lulu Twidale, sidelined by back pain.

The Bears finished 12 for 27 from beyond the three-point arc (44.4 percent) after converting just 14 of 65 through the first three games. Their 21.5-percent accuracy entering play on Saturday ranked 333rd nationally.

“I’m really proud of how we keep fighting, we’re a resilient group,” Cal coach Charmin Smith said. “We were down again to start the game and found a way to pull ahead. I know we need to be better and I’m trying to gain confidence in the good things that we’re doing. I loved our second half.”

Charlotte (2-3), coming off a 117-59 loss to No. 5 LSU, led 13-6 early as the Bears struggled to find the basket. The Bears opened the game shooting 4 for 16 from the field and missing the first seven attempts from deep.

The 49ers led 17-13 at the end of the first quarter before Cal asserted itself. A string of three straight 3-pointers, by Gisella Maul, Morris and Barnes boosted the Bears into 22-19 lead with 3:25 left in the second period.

Charlotte tied the score at 22-all and that’s where things stood at halftime.

The Bears broke the game open by outscoring Charlotte 24-13 in the third quarter, hitting four more 3-pointers. When Morris buried a pair of 3’s early in the fourth quarter, Cal’s lead swelled to 52-37.

While Cal shot 59 percent from the field in the second half, its defense limited Charlotte to 32 percent. The Bears also put the clamps on Charlotte’s leading scorer, senior guard Princess Anderson, who managed just seven points on 2-for-11 shooting. She had averaged 26.3 points the previous three games.

The Bears assembled runs of 13-2 and 9-2 in the third quarter and fashioned a 15-2 burst in the fourth. It added up to Cal outscoring Charlotte 47-22 in the second half.

Cal outrebounded the visitors 41-33, thanks in part to Sakima Walker grabbing nine boards.

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