Reserve Leads Cal Women's Win While Playing Just 11 Minutes

A Cal reserve who played just 11 minutes played a major role in helping the Bears' women's basketball team continue its home-court dominance.

Despite her brief time on the court, Cal sophomore Naya Ojukwu, a transfer from Morgan State, provided the scoring that turned the game in Cal's favor, leading the Bears to a 76-65 victory over Harvard Sunday evening in the championship game of the Raising the B.A.R. Invitational at Haas Pavilion.

Cal (4-1) is now 4-0 at home this season and 20-1 at Haas Pavilion since the start of the 2024-25 season, the only loss coming against 15th-ranked North Carolina last season. But Harvard figured to provide the biggest challenge Cal has faced at home this season.

Harvard (2-3) was picked to finish third in the Ivy League preseason poll this season, and the Crimson reached the NCAA tournament last season when Harvard wound up with a 24-5 record. Harvard had defeated Oakland University 93-55 on Saturday to earn the matchup with Cal.

And Harvard might have pulled off the upset had it not been for the play of Ojukwu. In her 11 minutes of playing time, Ojukwu scored 15 points on 7-for-10 shooting, added six rebounds and provided the Bears' offense when it was needed most.

She scored six points in the final four minutes of the first half to help Cal take a two-point lead at halftime, but her bigger contirbutions came in the second half.

Harvard held a six-point lead midway through the third quarter when Ojukwu went to work. She scored seven points over the next three minutes, helping the Bears take control. Her bucket with 2:31 left in the quarter brought the Bears within a point, and her basket off an offensive rebound with 1:25 to go in the third quarter put Cal ahead to stay.

A subsequent three-pointer by Lulu Twidale pushed the margin to four points, and Cal increased the lead to 12 points when Puff Morris nailed a three-point shot with 7:14 remaining in the fourth quarter.

However, it was the buckets by Ujukwu that turned the momentum in Cal's favor.

The only question left by Ojukwu's performance was: Why didn't she play more?

Twidale's performance was encouraging, and not just because she led Cal with 17 points. More significant was the fact that she was 4-for-8 from beyond the three-point line. She was second in the ACC in three-pointers made last season with 94, but she came into Sunday's game having made just one three-pointer in 22 tries.

She returned to the starting lineup after missing Saturday's game with a back problem, and her three-point shooting returned with her. She even made a three-pointer she should not have taken, when she hit a shot from long range early in the shot clock with Cal holding an eight-point lead with 1:01 to go in the game.

Cal center Sakima Walker added 15 points and three blocks for Cal, which limited Harvard to 30.3% shooting in the second half after the Crimson made 51.7% of their field-goal attempts in the first half.

Harvard's Abigail Wright led all scorers with 23 points.

The first half was tight throughout and ended with Cal holding a 37-35 lead.

Both teams shot well over the first two quarters as the Bears made 50% of their first-half shots and Harvard hit 51.7% of its field-goal attempts. Cal had 13 assists on its 16 made field goals in the first 20 minutes.

Walker led the Bears in the first half with 11 points, but Ojukwu came off the bench to score eight points in the first half in just five minutes of court time. Ojukwu scored six of her points in the final two minutes of the second quarter.

Wright had 13 points and Karlee White added 10 for Harvard in the first half.

“I’m glad we were able to get a win and win our tournament,” Cal head coach Charmin Smith said in a statement provided by Cal. “That's really important to us. I have a lot of respect for Harvard and they're a really good team. We had to play well. We had to be consistent and really good defensively and I’m glad we were able to do that. We finally got some touches inside for our bigs and letting our posts eat as we say is important. We have to have an inside presence because then it makes it easier for our perimeter scorers. So getting Sakima and Naya some touches was a big difference maker.”

Earlier Sunday, Charlotte beat Oakland 66-41 in the consolation game.

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