Despite More Turnover Troubles, No. 18 Cal Women Beat Wake Forest

The No. 18 Cal women's basketball team did not play a clean game on Sunday, but the Golden Bears still came away with a 67-55 road ACC victory over Wake Forest on Sunday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The Bears (17-3, 5-2 ACC) recorded their fifth road win of the season, tying last season's five total road wins for the most in a season since Charmin Smith became head coach. And they have yet to lose consecutive games this season.

But the Bears have to be concerned about their turnover problems. After committing a season-high 31 turnovers in the 34-point loss at Duke on Thursday, Cal committed 28 more turnovers on Sunday. That's 59 turnovers on this two-game road trip, so the Bears have to be happy to get a split during their stay in North Carolina with that many lost possessions

Cal's top three scorers for the season -- Lulu Twidale, Ioanna Krimili and Marta Suarez -- combined for just nine points in Cal's lopsided loss to Duke on Thursday, but they combined for 44 points on Sunday as all three reached double figures in scoring. Suarez led the way with 16 points, while Krimili and Twidale scored 14 apiece. Those three were 9-for-21 on three-pointers.

“I feel like we all knew we got our butts kicked and we were all eager to have a chance to do it better," Smith said. "I don't think you have to say much when you when you get beat the way that we did. Everybody knew that it wasn't our best performance and we had to clean up a lot. We still need to clean up a lot.”

Wake Forest (7-11, 0-7 ACC) lost its sixth straight game and is not nearly as talented as 16th-ranked Duke. That enabled Cal to dominate the game despite its many ball-handling mistakes.

Cal started slowly, but made enough shots to make up for the fact that Wake Forest attempted 16 more field goals than Cal. Wake Forest shot just 32.3% from the field and were ourebounded by Cal 45-26.

After making just two three-pointers against Duke, the Bears made 10 from long range on Sunday,

“When we shoot the three ball well, we're really hard team to beat, and Ioanna did a great job of knocking down shots when we really needed it," Smith said. "I thought Michelle [Onyiah] came up with some huge rebounds as well. I thought Marta got going there. We knew that this team, they've been close in every game, from Notre Dame to Stanford, they've had close games. So, we knew it wasn't going to be easy. I'm thankful in ACC play to get a split. We got the split, we get to go home and I do feel good about that.”

Cal started slowly, but led by eight at halftime and stretched its led to 14 points midway through the third quarter. Wake Forest never got closer than seven points the rest of the way. Cal built its lead to 15 points with 6:05 remaining in the fourth quarter, and Wake Forest did not have the offensive firepower to catch up.

Cal did not play a tidy first half, but still held an eight-point lead at halftime. The Bears committed 13 first-half turnovers and missed their first five shots of the game, but they started hitting some three-pointers in the second quarter while the Deacons went cold.

Krimili scored eight consecutive Cal points early in the second quarter, turning a 17-13 deficit into Cal’s first lead of the game at 21-19.

Krimili hit her third three-pointer of the game with 1:41 left in the first half to give her 11 points and give the Bears a 32-24 lead.

Wake Forest shot just 3-for-15 from the floor in the second quarter, helping Cal take control despite committing eight turnovers in that quarter.

After missing their first six three-point shots of the game, the Bears made six of their final eight three-pointers of the first half. Wake Forest was just 1-for-8 from long distance before halftime., Cal also dominated the boards in the first 20 minutes, outrebounding the Deacons 23-12.

If Cal had not committed so many turnovers, it would have been up by a much bigger margin at intermission.

NOTES: The Bears were coming off a humbling 72-38 loss to No. 16 Duke, by far Cal’s most lopsided defeat of the season. No Cal player scored in double figures in that game, in which Cal was just 2-for-12 on three-point shots. Krimili scored a season-low two points in that game, and she, Twidale and Suarez combined to to shoot 3-for-17 from the floor against the Blue Devils

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