Cal Sports Report

Cal Women's Basketball: Bears 6-0 for First Time Since 2018-19

Cal forces 28 turnovers in blowout win over San Jose State
Jake Curtis|
Cal Women's Basketball: Bears 6-0 for First Time Since 2018-19
Cal Women's Basketball: Bears 6-0 for First Time Since 2018-19

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California Golden Bears

Cal's women's basketball team defeated San Jose State 74-51 on Friday afternoon at Haas Pavilion to improve to 6-0 for the first time since Charmin Smith became the Bears' head coach.

The last time Cal began a season 6-0 was 2018-19, when the Bears started 9-0 in Lindsay Gottlieb's final season as Cal's head coach.

Cal will play either Texas A&M or Winthrop in Saturday's title game of the Raising the B.A.R. Invitational.

The Bears were without Ioanna Krimili for the third straight game on Friday, and there is no indication when or if she will return this season.  However, her absence has allowed Michelle Onyiah to move into the starting lineup, and she has taken advantage of the opportunity.

In her first two starts against Auburn and Florida A&M, Onyiah collected 37 rebounds in those two games combined.

On Friday Onyiah turned her attention to scoring. She had a team-high 13 points on 6-for-7 shooting, and all of her points came in the first half when Cal took control of the game. She also had five steals but just two rebounds.

San Jose State shot better than Cal, hitting 43.9% of its field-goal attempts compared with 37.9% shooting by the Bears.

However, the Bears forced San Jose State (3-3) in 28 turnovers, with 15 of those turnovers coming on steals by Cal.

The Bears also controlled the boards. Cal collected 23 offensive rebounds while outrebounding the the Spartans 41-28.

Freshman Lulu Laditan-Twidale came off the bench to score 12 points for Cal, with all of her points coming on four 3-point shots.  Marta Suarez had 10 points and 10 rebounds although she was just 3-for-10 from the field.

Cal took command of the game in the first quarter. The Bears trailed 7-4 before scoring 14 consecutive points and taking a lead that was never threatened.

Cover photo of Michelle Onyiah

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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