Cal Women Survive Late Drought to Upend Visiting Virginia

Scoreless for 4 minutes, 16 seconds, Cal got four free throws from Lulu Twidale in the final 9 seconds to lock up a 64-58 upset victory over Virginia on Thursday night at Haas Pavilion.

The Bears (16-10, 7-6 ACC), who led by 16 points at halftime and 15 late in the third quarter, held off a late charge by the visitors to win their third straight game and sixth in seven games.

Virginia (17-8, 9-5) closed the margin to 60-58 on a jumper by Paris Clark with 2:04 left. Cal missed its final six field-goal attempts and10 of its final 12 tries.

But the Cavaliers, who began the day in fourth place in the ACC standings, didn’t score again after Clark’s basket. Twidale made two free throws with 9 seconds left and two more with 6 seconds remaining and the Bears scored a Quad 2 victory that will boost their NCAA tournament chances.

Cal entered the game at No. 51 in the NET computer rankings while Virginia was No. 36. The Bears are 0-8 in Quad 1 games but improved to 3-1 in Quad 2 matchups.

“I think this is a really good win for our program and we needed it,” Cal coach Charmin Smith said. “Virginia is a really good team. I liked our defense, particularly in the first half. We needed the lead that we got, and then we did what we needed to do to hold on."

The Bears return to action at Haas on Sunday against Virginia Tech (19-7, 9-5), which beat Stanford 79-67 on Thursday night. Tipoff vs. the Hokies is at 2 p.m.

The Bears were sharp in the first half Thursday, shooting 53 percent. They won despite converting just 23 percent the second half. But Cal battled Virginia to a 36-36 standoff on the boards, a key against a team that was leading the ACC in rebound margin at plus-11.6

Center Sakima Walker led the Bears with 20 points and 10 rebounds, her sixth double-double of the season. Twidale scored 17 points, 13 of them in the first half and no more until nailing the final four free throws. Gisella Maul added 12 points, including a 3-pointer with 4:25 left that turned out to be the Bears’ final field goal of the night.

"I’m really happy with how Sakima has been on the block. We have that low post presence that's made things a lot easier for Lulu and Gisella as well," Smith said.." And Lulu and Gisella stepped up and made shots and hit free throws down the stretch too. So it was a really good team win."

Tabitha Amanze led Virginia with 14 points. All-ACC guard Kymora Johnson, who scored 41 points in a game this season and was averaging 19.2 points and 6.3 assists, finished with 10 points on 3-for-11 shooting, eight assists and three steals.

The Bears led 45-29 at halftime, fueled by Walker’s perfect shooting performance. The senior center scored 16 points on 6 for 6 from the field and 4 for 4 from the free throw line.

Twidale added 13 points, including a trio of 3-point baskets.

Cal led by as many as seven points midway through the first quarter before Virginia knotted the score at 17-all in the first minute of the second period.

The Bears were up 20-19 when they outscored the visitors 25-10 over the final 8 minutes of the second quarter. Walker accounted for 10 points and Cal’s defense limited the Cavaliers to 5 for 16 accuracy in the second quarter.

Freshman grad Puff Morris saw action off the bench in her second game after missing the previous 10 outings with a knee injury. She hit a pair of 3-pointers for six points in 21 minutes. " Happy to see Puff back,” Smith said.

Cal freshman forward Taylor Barnes, who started the first 22 games and was averaging 9.2 points and 5.5 rebounds, missed her third consecutive game due to injury.

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