Cal Women Survive Santa Clara and a Hot Haas to Advance in WBIT

Lulu Twidale scored 27 points, including four straight free throws in the final 13.5 seconds, and the Cal women won their 20th consecutive home game against non-conference opponents with a 72-68 victory over Santa Clara in opening-round play of the WBIT on Thursday night.

Not even an unusually hot day in Berkeley, which seeped into Haas Pavilion, prevented the Bears from advancing to the tournament’s second round.

It was 88 degrees in Berkeley on Thursday, according to AccuWeather, and Cal center Sakima Walker said it felt every bit that warm at Haas.

“Honestly, it was really hot. I’m not going to lie,” said Walker, who scored eight of her 19 points in the fourth quarter. “It was like thick, humid air. It was definitely tough— that was the adversity piece of it. But I think once we got over that hump and past that, things started to smooth out.”

Twidale, who is accustomed to warm weather at home in Australia, was asked if this felt familiar. “Yeah, but we have AC," she said, prompting a big laugh from her teammate and coach Charmin Smith.

The Bears (20-14) will hope for a cooler venue Sunday when they visit Kansas State (19-17), which defeated Georgia Tech 69-65. Tipoff is 4 p.m. PT.

Cal beat Santa Clara (24-10) for the sixth straight time and improved to 30-7 all-time vs. their Bay Area rival from the West Coast Conference. But this one, featuring 14 lead changes, wasn’t easy.

“I felt like this wasn’t going to be an easy one,” Smith said. “Santa Clara’s a really good team. They play extremely hard. We scrimmaged them, so we had an idea what was coming.

“I’m really proud of how resilient we were down the stretch and the fight that we showed in wanting to continue our season. A lot of times you se upsets at this point because people are just like, `Eh, that’s OK. We’re going on spring break'. I’m glad that was not our mentality. We found a way to win.”

The Broncos led by 8 points early in the fourth quarter and were up 63-62 after 3-pointer by Ava Schmidt with 3:23 left.

But Cal, which also reached the second round of the WBIT two seasons ago, outscored the Broncos 10-5 the rest of the way. A steal and layup by Mjracle Sheppard put Cal in front 64-63 with 2:31 and a layup and free throw by Twidale off another Santa Clara turnover pushed the margin to 67-63 with 1:03 to play.

Twidale was 11 for 11 from the foul line and added 11 rebounds and four assists.

Ashley Hawkins and Ava Schmidt each scored 18 points to lead the Broncos. First-year Santa Clara coach Loree Payne, in the video below, praised Cal and said she was proud of her team’s effort all season long even after losing top scorer and rebounder Sophie Glancey to a season-ending injury in January.

Cal, which had averaged 10 made 3-pointers over the previous five games, made just 5 of 29 for 17.2 percent. Santa Clara was no better, hitting 4 of 21 for 19 percent. The Bears' biggest edge was on the boards, where they outrebounded Santa Clara 51-39, including 19 at the offensive end which led to a 15-2 edge in second-chance points

Santa Clara outscored Cal 16-4 over the final 4:03 of the third quarter to lead 55-49 entering the final 10 minutes. The Broncos ended the third with a 7-0 run that included a nice hesitation drive and free throw by Hawkins with 8.7 seconds left in the period.

The Bears used a 16-5 run late in the second quarter open up a 10-point lead on the way to a 36-29 advantage at halftime.

Neither team shot well, with Cal converting 35 percent (14 for 40) in the half and the Broncos connecting on 35.3 percent (12 for 34). They combined to go 1 for 14 from the 3-point line in the first quarter and it got only marginally better in the second period, with the Bears finishing the half at 3 for 17, Santa Clara at 2 for 11.

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