Cal Women's Basketball Breezes to Victory over SJSU

The Cal women sprinted to an 11-0 lead after 5 minutes and never were challenged on the way to a 92-42 rout of winless San Jose State on Sunday afternoon.

The victory snapped a mini two-game losing streak — with losses to Auburn and Missouri — and improved the Bears to 7-3. They are 6-0 at Haas Pavilion.

The 50-point margin of victory was Cal’s largest of the season and fifth-largest since the 1981-82 season. Cal improved to 27-10 all-time vs. the Spartans.

“I’m really proud of how we came out today because we weren’t please with our last two performances and wanted to be better,” Cal coach Charmin Smith said. “We set some goals for the team. We wanted to make San Jose State call a timeout early on. We wanted to have 20 assists and wanted to score over 75 points for the game. We wanted to hold them below 20 points in the paint.

"We did all of those things. I felt a lot of intention from our team in trying to be better. We know we have a long way to go but this was a step in the right direction.”

Lulu Twidale, the junior guard from Queensland, Australia, led the Bears with a season-high 20 points.

Cal's Sakima Walker prepares to go up for a shot | Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics

Center Sakima Walker had 16 points and 11 rebounds. The senior transfer from South Carolina posted her sixth double-digit scoring game and her second double-double.

Sophomore forward Naya Ojukwu, a transfer from Morgan State, contributed 19 points in 16 minutes off the bench.

The Bears led 20-4 at the end of the first quarter, during which the Spartans (0-8) shot 2 for 15, including 0 for 8 on 3’s, and committed five turnovers.

Cal stretched its lead to 35-16 by halftime and 73-28 after three quarters.

Eleven players scored for the Bears and no one played for more than 24 minutes. Cal shot 47 percent from the field and the Spartans converted just 29 percent.

Cal outrebounded SJS by a 55-30 margin, including 22 offensive rebounds the Bears turned into 29 second-chance points.

The Bears outscored San Jose 44-16 in points in the paint.

Guard Katrina Anderson led the Spartans with 10 points.

The Bears began the day at No. 76 in the NCAA’s NET computer rankings. A victory over the Spartans, who were ranked 283rd, will not boost Cal’s standing.

Cal returns to action next Wednesday against Idaho at 7 p.m. at Haas, before opening ACC play next Sunday at Stanford. Tipoff is 1 pm.

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