Stanford Uses Strong Fourth Quarter to Beat Cal Women

Stanford's fourth-quarter explosion sent the Cal women to a 78-69 defeat on Saturday afternoon at Stanford in both teams' opening ACC game of the season.

A Cal victory over the Cardinal would have been a major boost to the Bears' chances of making the NCAA tournament for the second straight season, and for three quarters they were in position to pull off a significant victory.

Cal (8-4) led after three quarters and held a 57-52 lead when Puff Morris scored with 9:15 left in the fourth quarter. But Stanford (9-2) then went on a 12-0 run to take command.

The Cardinal grabbed the lead 58-57 when Chloe Clardy turned a steal into a fast-break basket with 6:39 to go. That was followed by a three-point shot by Stanford's Lara Somfai and a banked-in three-pointer by Talana Lepolo to push the margin to seven points.

Stanford's Courtney Ogden, who finished with a career-high 25 points on 10-for-12 shooting, finished off the Cardinal's 20-2 run with a three-point play that gave the Cardinal a 72-62 lead with 1:44 remaining.

Cal's offense disappeared during that Stanford run as the Bears went just 2-for-16 from the field during the Cardinal's spurt.

Freshman Taylor Barnes led Cal in scoring with 16 points, while Sakima Walker added 13 points and Morris had 12. Lulu Twidale, Cal's leading scorer, was limited by foul trouble and finished with just five points on 1-for-5 shooting.

Stanford had four players reach double figures in scoring. Besides Ogden, Clardy had 13 points, and Somfai and Nunu Agara added 12 apiece.

Cal committed just seven turnovers, but that did not turn out to be an advantage for the Bears because Stanford had only six turnovers on Sunday after committing 30 turnovers in the Cardinal's previous game, a 65-62 loss to Tennessee on December 3.

The Bears made 36.8% of their field-goal attempts and were 5-for-20 from long range. Stanford shot poorly at the beginning of the game but ended up making 43.9% of its shots and was 8-for-14 on three-point shots. The Cardinal sot 61.5% in the fourth quarter, and Stanford was 3-for-4 from beyond the three-point line and 7-for-7 from the foul line in the final quarter.

This was the 105th game between the two Bay Area rivals and Cal had won both games against the Cardinal last season. But Stanford now owns an 82-23 alltime record against Cal.

Cal held a 55-52 lead after three quarters thanks to a three-point shot by Morris with one second remaining in the quarter.

A tight first half ended with Stanford holding a 34-31 lead. The Cardinal led by a point in the closing seconds of the second quarter before Stanford’s Ogden barely beat the shot clock by hitting a 10-foot runner with three seconds left in the half to give Stanford its three-point advantage at the break.

That gave Ogden a team-high 10 points at halftime, while Barnes had 10 points for the Bears.

Cal led for much of the first half after making its first four shots to take a 10-5 lead.

The Bears held a 17-13 lead early in the second period, thanks in large part to the Cardinal’s poor shooting. Stanford was just 5-for-24 from the field at that point, but it reeled off eight straight points to forge ahead 28-24 with 3:32 remaining in the half.

Cal tied the game at 31-31 on a follow shot by Naya Ojukwu, who finished the half with eight points. But Stanford scored the final three points of the second quarter.

NOTES

---Cal’s next game is against 16th-ranked USC next Sunday at the Chase Center in San Francisco. USC’s head coach is former Cal head coach Lindsay Gottlieb.

---Stanford head coach Kate Paye and Cal head coach Charmin Smith were teammates at Stanford under head coach Tara VanDerveer.

---In the latest Bracketology projection of the women’s NCAA tournament field posted by ESPN earlier this week, Stanford is in the field as a No. 8 seed, one of eight ACC teams projected to be in the tournament.

Cal is not in that ESPN Bracketology field, and is not one of the First Four Teams Out or one of the Next Four Teams Out. So the Bears have some work to do.

---Cal entered Saturday’s game with a NET ranking of 67. Stanford was 33rd.

---Cal was a 7-point underdog for Sunday’s game against Stanford.

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