Cal Women Finish Strong to Top Pacific, 60-52

Sophomore Naya Ojukwu scored seven of her nine points in the final 3:20 and Lulu Twidale made four free throws in the final 26 seconds as the Cal women held off Pacific 60-52 at Haas Pavilion on Tuesday night.

The Bears (2-1) beat the Tigers (1-2) for the eighth straight time and improved to 28-2 in the all-time series despite committing 15 first-half turnovers and shooting 2 for 16 from 3-point range.

The score was even at 43-all when Taylor Barnes gave the Bears the lead for good by making the second of two free throws with 5:34 left.

Cal outscored Pacific 17-9 to close out a game that featured wild runs in both directions. The Bears fought back from a nine-point third-quarter deficit to prevail after an 18-0 Pacific run and a 16-0 surge by Cal.

“I’m really proud of our team and how we fought,” Cal coach Charmin Smith said. “It’s one of those games where I told the team we could have let go and it could have been too hard to fight back. We found a way. We didn’t play our best but credit to Pacific. They were scrappy, aggressive and made it tough for us.

In the end it goes down as a win which is what matters most. I think we were able to learn some things about ourselves that will make us better moving forward.”

Twidale, the junior guard from Australia, led the Bears with 19 points. But she shot 0 for 6 from 3-point range and is now 1 for 22 from beyond the act over three games. Twidale shot 38 percent on 3’s last season, helping the Bears to an NCAA tournament berth.

Taylor Barnes had eight points and a team-high eight rebounds for the Bears.

Cal forged a 43-30 rebounding edge and committed just three more turnovers in the second half after being plagued by giveaways early. The Bears had a 10-2 advantage in second-chance points and outscored the Tigers 14-4 in fastbreak opportunities.

The Bears used an 18-0 run that straddled the first and second periods but Pacific scored the final 10 points of the half to pull even at 24-all.

The Tigers continued their run, stretching out to a 35-26 advantage when Sydney Ward made a 3-pointer with 6:23 left in the third to cap a 21-2 burst that included scoring 16 straight.

Cal answered with its own 9-0 run, going in front 41-40 on a 3-pointer by Claudia Langarita with 32 seconds left in the quarter. The Bears had made just 1 of 12 shots from beyond the arc before Langarita’s go-ahead basket.

The Bears started slowly, shooting 2 for 9 with six turnovers while Pacific used an 8-0 run to surge into a 13-5 lead with 4:50 left in the quarter.

It was 14-6 when Cal went on a 10-0 run to close the quarter. A layup by Twidale off a pass from Gisella Maul tied the score at 14-all with 30 seconds left.

Twidale converted another layup with an assist to Morris to give the Bears a two-point edge with three seconds remaining in the period.

The Bears’ run continued through the first 7 1/2 minutes of the second quarter, finally pushing the margin to 24-14 after two free throw by Twidale with 2:40 left.

Cal seemingly took control despite their ongoing turnover problems. They had eight more in the second quarter after seven in the opening period, and those missed chances eventually gave Pacific the chance to regroup.

The Tigers halted Cal’s 18-0 run when freshman guard Liz Yergensen nailed a 3-point shot with 2:14 to play in the half. That triggered a 10-0 Pacific run in which Yergensen made two free throws and another 3-pointer, the latter with 41 seconds to knot the score entering halftime.

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