Cal Women Prepare for ACC Tournament With Easy Win Over SMU

Cal wins its final regular-season game but needs to do well in the conference tournament to have a shot at an NCAA tournament berth

Cal women's basketball | Photo by Robert Edwards, KLC Fotos

Cal warmed up for the women’s ACC tournament by blowing by overmatched SMU 78-34 on Sunday afternoon at Haas Pavilion in the Bears’ final regular-season game.

Lulu Twidale nailed seven three-point shots and finished with 25 points and Gisella Maul was 4-for-4 from long range to finish with 17 points to lead Cal, whose postseason destination will be determined this week.

The Bears (18-13, 9-9 ACC) are not projected to get an NCAA tournament berth at the moment, so the only way Cal can get into March Madness would be to have a deep run the ACC tournament, which starts Wednesday at the Gas South Arena in Duluth, Georgia.

Cal is seeded 10th and will face 15th-seeded Wake Forest (14-16, 4-14 ACC) in a first-round ACC tournament game at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday. It will be televised on the ACC Network. Cal beat Wake Forest 61-52 during the regular season.

If Cal wins that game it would play seventh-seeded Virginia Tech (22-8, 12-6 ACC) on Thursday. The Hokies defeated Cal 68-58 at Haas Pavilion two weeks ago.

The Bears must win five games in five days to win the conference tournament title and earn an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.

SMU (9-16, 2-16 ACC) has lost four in a row and 10 of its last 11 games. The Mustangs did not qualify for the ACC tournament, and they did not resemble a tournament team on Sunday.

Cal got off to a fast start against SMU, thanks to the outside shooting of Twidale. She hit four three-pointers in the first quarter, helping the Bears take a 22-10 lead after one quarter.

The Bears extended their lead to 22 points late in the second quarter, and they held a 40-20 lead at halftime.

The Bears increased the lead in the second half, and the game was essentially over at the end of three quarters when Cal pushed its lead to 33 points.

Cal hopes the shooting prowess it showed on Sunday continues in the conference tournament. The Bears made 15 of their first 27 attempts from long range before missing their last few and finishing 15-for-30 from beyond the arc.

Cal limited SMU to 20 percent shooting, while the Bears made 45.2 percent of their shots from the field after being over 50 percent for most of the game..

NOTES

Cal freshman forward Taylor Barnes missed her ninth straight game on Sunday with an ankle injury, but the Bears hope she will be ready to play in the conference tournament.