Lulu Twidale Pushes Cal Women a Little Closer to an NCAA Tournament Bid

Two days after scoring a season-low four points in a loss to Virginia Tech, Lulu Twidale scored 30 points, including 17 in a pivotal fourth quarter, to lead Cal to a must-win, 75-62 victory over Florida State Thursday evening in Tallahassee, Florida.

A month ago, Cal was not in the NCAA tournament picture, but the Bears have won seven of their past nine games to improve their record to 17-11 overall and 8-7 in the ACC.

They now find themselves just outside the bubble in their bid for an NCAA tournament berth for the second year in a row.

ESPN’s NCAA projections this week have Cal in the Next Four Out of the 68-team field, so Cal, which entered the Thursday action with an NET ranking of 57, needs to pass several teams to earn a berth.

“I think we understood the importance of this game and our will to win was strong enough to get it done,” Cal head coach Charmin Smith said. “It's hard playing on the road. Every road win is a big win and I loved our fight in the fourth in particular. She [Lulu Twidale] was really resilient and fought through a first half in which she struggled offensively and really dominated in the second half. And that's what we expect of her, that's what we need of her. And she's also making others better with six assists and distributing and helping our offense run, so it was a great effort.”

A loss to Florida State (9-18, 4-11 ACC) might have ended Cal’s postseason hopes, and the Bears trailed by three points entering the fourth quarter.

That’s when Twidale took over. She converted a three-point shot and three-point play in the first minute of the final quarter to put Cal in front by three points.

Cal increased its lead to eight points when Twidale made a pair of free throws at the 4:17 mark, and when the Seminoles closed the gap to five points less than a minute later, Twidale nailed another shot from behind the three-point arc to put the Bears back up by eight with 3:05 to go.

Florida State, which shot 2-for-15 in the fourth quarter, did not threaten after that.

Twidale scored 25 of her 30 points in the second half, but her 17 points in the fourth quarter were the points that made the difference for Cal. She outscored the entire Florida State team 17-9 in the fourth quarter.

It was her third game this season in which she scored 30 points or more, and all three came in the past nine games while Cal was making its late-season surge.

In Sunday’s loss, Twidale was 1-for-8 from the field and 0-for-5 from distance, but on Thursday she was 10-for-20 from the field, including 5-for-13 from long range. She was 8-for-11, including 4-for-7 on three-pointers, in the second half.

Twidale also had nine rebounds and six assists against the Seminoles.

Cal freshman forward Taylor Barnes missed her sixth straight game with an ankle injury, and freshman Puff Morris came off the bench on Thursday, putting Claudia Langarita in the starting lineup.

Florida State shot just 27.8 percent from the floor in the first half, but trailed by only two points at halftime.

Sydney Bowles led the Seminoles in the first half with 11 points, and she made a three-pointer at the first-quarter buzzer and hit two more from long range early in the second quarter to give Florida State a 24-18 lead.

However, a three-pointer by Cal’s Anastasia Drosouni helped the Bears surge to a 32-28 lead that was reduced to 32-30 at halftime. Drosouni had played in just seven games this season before Thursday, and all eight of her shots this season have been three-pointers. She has made four of those shots from long range.