Duke Women Overcome 10-Point, Fourth-Quarter Deficit to Beat Cal

Cal let a 10-point fourth-quarter lead slip away in a 78-74 loss to Duke on Thursday that ended the Golden Bears' 13-game home winning streak.

Cal (9-8, 0-4 ACC) has lost three in a row and five of its last six, but was 8-0 at home this season coming into Thursday's game.

The Bears led by 10 points to start the fourth quarter and still had six-point advantage with five minutes left, but could not hold on against a hot Duke team, that has won seven straight games after a 3-6 start to the season and is now 10-6 overall and 5-0 in the ACC.

Coming into the game, Cal had won 13 straight games at home and was 24-1 at Haas Pavilion since the start of 2024-25 season, and the Bears seemed poised for an upset on their home court when they scored the final 11 points of the third quarter to take a 64-54 lead.

But Duke whittled away at the Cal lead and went ahead 71-70 on Delaney Thomas three-point play with 3:02 remaining.

Cal still trailed by just a point when it took possession wth less than a minute remaning. But the Bears committed a turnovers with 35 seconds left, and Duke's Toby Fournier was fouled with 9.9 seconds remaining. Fournier was injured on the play and Jordan Wood, a 62.5% foul shooter, was allowed to take the place of Fournier, a 50.9% free-throw shooter, at the foul line. (Fournier came back in the games seconds later.)

Wood made the first of her free throws to put Duke ahead by two, but missed the second. Duke's Arianna Roberson came up with the loose ball after a scramble and put it in for her 20th point to put the Blue Devils up by four points with 7.4 seconds to go.

Cal's Gisella Maul scored with 1.8 seconds remaining, but Duke's Ashlon Jackson made both free throws with 1.1 seconds to go to set the final score.

Cal's post players had a productive game. Sakima Walker had 18 points on 9-for-13 shooting, and Naya Ojukwu came off the bench to score 14 points and grab 10 rebounds in 18 minutes of court time.

Maul added 13 points and 10 boards for Cal. She started the game in place of freshman point guard Puff Morris, who missed her third straight game with an injury.

Cal shot a respectable 46.6% percent from the floor and had 13 offensive rebounds to 11 for Duke. But the Bears were just 2-for-11 on three-point attempts and committed 18 turnovers. Lulu Twidale had Cal's only two baskets from long distance and she was 2-for-6 from beyond the arc.

Duke held a 42-39 lead at halftime thanks to a three-pointer at the buzzer by the Blue Devils’ Ashlon Jackson.

Cal never had the lead in the first half but stayed close by hitting 50% of their shots, although the Bears were 0-for-5 on three-pointers in the first 20 minutes.

Duke’s Roberson scored 18 points off the bench in the first half, and that was already a career high for a game.

Walkers had 12 points on 6-for-7 shooting in the first half for Cal.

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