Cal Women Miss First-Round ACC Bye After Loss to Clemson

The Cal women’s hopes of securing a first-round bye in the ACC tournament were ended after a 70-63 loss to Clemson on Thursday night at Haas Pavilion.

The Bears (17-13, 8-9 ACC) are tied for 10th place with Miami and trail five teams, including Clemson, who are tied for fifth through ninth place at 11-6, by two games with one to play. With a win over the Tigers, Cal would have pulled within a game of ninth place with one game left.

Only the top nine teams in the ACC standings earn byes when the ACC tourney gets under way Wednesday at Duluth, Georgia. The 10th through 15th finishers in the 18-team conference play a first-round game. The bottom three are left out of the event.

Cal closes regular-season play Sunday at home against Pittsburgh (8-22, 1-16), which is tied for last place in the ACC. Tipoff for the Bears’ final scheduled home game is 2 p.m.

The Bears, who began the day at No. 54 in the NET computer, will have to make a run at the ACC tournament to get serious NCAA tournament consideration.

Clemson (20-9, 11-6), projected by ESPN’s Charlie Creme to be included in the NCAA tournament’s 68-team bracket, never trailed at Berkeley.

Coming off a last-second 53-51 win over first-place and ninth-ranked Duke, the Tigers led 7-0 to start and took advantage of erratic shooting by the Bears to win for the fourth time in five games.

Clemson led 35-30 at halftime before scoring the first eight points of the third quarter for a 43-30 advantage. The Tigers led by 12 points before a pair of 3-pointers by Lulu Twidale in the final minute cut the margin to 67-63.

Cal got no closer as the Tigers made three of four free throws in the final 14 seconds to clinch the outcome.

Twidale scored 23 points for the Bears, including five 3-pointers, but the junior guard also had five of Cal’s 17 turnovers. Clemson converted those turnovers into 24 points.

Gisella Maul had 18 points and eight rebounds and converted four 3-point shots.

The Bears made 42 percent (11 for 26) of their 3s but converted just 34 percent (10 of 29) from inside the arc.

Senior guard Mia Moore scored 21 points to lead Clemson, Raven Thompson had 14 points and 11 rebounds and Rusne Augustinaite scored 15 points.

The Bears trailed by as many as nine points in the first quarter but pulled within 21-19 on a layup by Sakima Walker with 6:33 left in the second quarter.

The Tigers stretched their advantage out to 35-27 on a 3-pointer by Rusne Augustinaite with 31 seconds left in he half. Maul answered by making a 3-pointer with one second left in the half, and the Bears trailed 35-30 at the break.

Turnovers plagued both teams in the first 20 minutes, Clemson committing 10, Cal eight. But the Tigers shot 60 percent (15 for 25) in the half while the Bears managed just 36.7 percent (11-30).

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