Cal Women Lose to Columbia in WBIT Quarterfinals

Cal’s 2025-26 season ended on Thursday, when the Bears lost to Columbia 74-68 in a Women’s Invitation Tournament quarterfinal game before a crowd of 1,113 at Haas Pavilion.

Cal’s late-game rally fell short and the Bears finished with a 21-15 record. Mjracle Sheppard. Lulu Twidale and Gisella Maul had 15 points apiece for Cal. Bears center

Sakima Wake played her final college game and finished with 11 points, five reounds and four blocks. Walker is the only one of Cal's top seven players who has exhausted her college eligibility, so it will be coach Charmin Smith's job to retain those other six players to form a more experiences team in 2026-27.

Columbia's ability to control the boards was a major factor Thursday. The Lions had 16 offensive rebounds to just five for Cal, and that helped Lions outscore the Bears 16-4 on second-chance points. The Bears shot 51.0 percent from the field, but the Lions' board work and Cal's 15 turnovers helped Columbia get 13 more field-goal attempts than Cal.

"Obviously we're disappointed to have the season come to an end." Cal head coach Charmin Smith said. "I thought they were the aggressor, but I really liked our resilience and our fight,"

Riley Weiss, the Ivy League player of the year, had 22 points for the Lions (23-8), and Perri Page led the team with 24 points.

The Lions will face Wisconsin (16-17) in the semifinals, which will be held on Monday at Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas.

Wisconsin pulled off an amazing late-game rally to defeat Harvard 64-61 in overtime in its quarterfinal game on Thursday. The Badgers overcame an eight-point deficit with 49 seconds left in the fourth quarter to force the extra period and win on Wisconsin’s homecourt.

The WNIT championship game is scheduled for Wednesday in Wichita.

The Bears trailed by 12 points midway through the third quarter and were behind by eight with 6:51 remaining in the fourth quarter.

But Cal scored nine straight points to take a 64-63 lead with 3:54 to go. It was Cal’s first lead since early in the first quarter.

The lead didn’t last long as Weiss nailed three-pointer to put the Lions ahead by two points 17 seconds later.

Cal regained a one-point lead on a Twidale bucket at the 3:07 mark, but the Lions went back in front on a Weiss jumper with 1:48 left. Columbia extended its lead to three points on Page’s 5-footer with 50 seconds left on the clock.

Sheppard turned the ball over on Cal’s ensuing possession, but Columbia threw the ball away with 23.2 seconds remaining to give Cal another chance.

Sheppard hit one of two free throws with 19.1 seconds to go to make it a 70-68 game in Columbia’s favor, and Mia Broom made two foul shots to give the Lions a four-point cushion with 17.7 seconds left. That ended Cal's chances.

Columbia expanded a six-point halftime lead to 12 points at 49-37 with 3:36 remaining in the third quarter. Cal reduced the margin to four points on a Gisella Maul three-pointer with 26 second left in the third quarter. But Page’s reverse layup with three seconds remaining gave Columbia a six-point advantage heading to the fourth quarter.

In its two previous WBIT games, Columbia had defeated St. John’s by 48 points and top-seeded North Dakota State by 29 points. And the Lions had handed Ivy League champion Princeton its only two conference losses of the season.

Columbia controlled the boards in the first half, which ended with the Lions holding a 35-29 lead.

Columbia outrebounded Cal 24-13 in the first half, and that included a 10-3 advantage on the offensive boards, helping the Lions outscore Cal 13-2 in second-chance points.

Columbia took an 8-6 lead with 5:17 remaining in the first quarter, and the Lions kept stayed ahead for the rest of the half.

Columbia’s Perri Page led all scorers with 11 points in the first half, while Mjracle Sheppard was the Bears’ high scorer over the first 20 minutes with nine points.

Sakima Walker was limited to two first-half points.