Cal Women's Basketball: Bears Win Exhibition Opener

Cal's women's basketball team started slowly, but came to life in the second half to beat Westmont 81-62 in its first exhibition game of the season at Haas Pavilion Thursday night.

It was the Bears first action against another team, and the Bears play another exhibition game next Thursday against Saint Martin's before Cal's season officially starts Nov. 9 with the regular-season opener against Sacramento State.

Freshman Jayda Curry led all scorers with 23 points. She went 8-for-15 from the field, including 3-for-7 from three-point range. Cailyn Crocker added 16 points, including 14 in the second half, and Evelein Lutje Schipholt added 13.

Westmont is the defending NAIA national champion, and it took a 42-34 lead at halftime. But Cal scored the first 11 points of the second half to take control, and outscored its opponent 21-2 to begin the third quarter.

"I thought we started off a little rusty," said head coach Charmin Smith. "We've got some people who haven't played basketball in a long time in a game setting. That was kind of evident in the first half, but we were able to knock off the rust and came out ready in the second half and turned things around and went on a huge run."

Cover photo of Cailyn Crocker by Kelley Cox. KLC fotos

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