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Cal Falls to Colorado in Women's Basketball

Golden Bears remain winless but show improvement in shooting
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Cal's women's basketball team remained winless, but there were a few encouraging signs to come out of the Bears' 75-59 loss to Colorado on Friday afternoon in Boulder, Colorado.

The young Bears (0-11, 0-7 Pac-17) have struggled with ballhandling this season, and though their 18 turnovers Friday are not what Cal would like, it represented an improvement over their average of 23.1 turnovers coming into the game, which ranked 333rd of 336 Division I teams.

More significant was the Bears' three-point shooting.  Cal entered the game shooting 16.7 percent from distance, which ranks next-to-last in the country.  But the Bears shot 37.0 percent (10-for-27) from distance on Friday, including 5-for-8 in the second half.

The best Cal shooters Friday were Leilani McIntosh, who was shooting 24.1 percent from long range entering the game, and Ornela Muca, who was hitting just 13.0 percent of her three-pointers before Friday.  But against Colorado, McIntosh hit 4-of-7 three-point attempts while Muca made all three of her shots from long range.

McIntosh led the Bears with 14 points and 10 assists, although she also committed six turnovers. Freshman Michelle Onyiah added 13 points and 12 rebounds for the Bears.

Colorado improved to 5-6 overall and 3-5 in the conference after shooting 50.9 percent from the field.

The Buffs led the entire game. Cal was within two points early in the second quarter, but Colorado controlled things from that point, and held a 17-point lead at halftime. 

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

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