Cal Women's Basketball: Bears Barely Fall Short in Loss to ASU

Late rally nearly gets the Golden Bears their first victory in a game that was delayed by more than three hours

Cal came agonizingly close to getting its first women's basketball victory of the season, but the Bears ultimately came up short in a 56-53 loss to Arizona State in Tempe, Ariz., Friday night.

The Bears had an opportunity to win the game in the closing seconds but could not come up with the key bucket.

"I appreciated our team's fight tonight," Cal coach Charmin Smith said. "Unfortunately, we had a few too many mistakes to get the reward for all of the hard work we put in."

Freshman Dalayah Daniels led the Bears with 20 points on 6-of-8 shooting, and her three-point basket in the final minute gave the Bears a chance to win it. 

"She's a special player," Smith said. "She had 20 points. I'm disappointed she only took eight shots. She got to the free-throw line a lot as well, but we need her to shoot the ball more, to be even more aggressive, because she's one of the ones we have that's reallycapable of putting it in the basket, and that's what we need."

Point guard Leilana McIntosh added 15 points and six steals, but she failed to make a pivotal shot in the final moments, perhapsbecause she was cramping.

The game was delayed by 3 1/2 hours because of COVID-19 safety concerns and did not start until 5:30 p.m.

The Bears (0-8, 0-5 Pac-12) started strong, and took a nine-point lead at halftime over the Sun Devils (7-2, 3-2), limiting ASU to 19 points and 24.1 percent shooting over the first two quarters.

Cal extended its lead to 11 points early in the third quarter, but the Sun Devils then began their comeback. The Bears held a one-point lead entering the fourth quarter, but the Sun Devils scored the first 10 points of the final quarter to take command.

The Bears whittled the nine-point deficit down to one when Daniels hit a three-point shot with 41 seconds left, and after an empty ASU possession, Cal regained possession with 7.8 second to go, needing to go the length of the court. Television replays indicated Cal probably shoud have 11.4 seconds left, rather than just 7.8, but Smith said later that would not have changed he strategy on the final play.

McIntosh took a pass in stride and dribbled at full speed all the way to the basket, but her five-foot shot .in the lane hit nothing but air with 2.1 seconds left.  Smith said McIntosh, who played all 40 minutes, was cramping late in the game, whch may be why she came up short on that shot.

Two free throws by ASU with 0.8 of a second left set the final score.

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

Find Cal Sports Report on Facebook by searching: @si.calsportsreport