Cal Women's Basketball: Bears Lose to No. 11 UCLA

The key question for Cal's young women's basketball team now is this: Can the Golden Bears weather the frustration of lopsided losses and improve as the season goes on?

Cal, which starts three freshmen and two sophomores, lost to No. 11 UCLA 71-37 on Saturday afternoon at Pauley Pavilion, and the numbers were not encouraging. For the second straight game the Bears shot under 30 percent from the field and had at least 30 turnovers.

Playing in the best women's basketball conference in the country is not helping the Bears, who slipped to 0-6 overall and 0-3 in the Pac-12. The Bears shot 23.3 percent from the field while committing 33 turnovers in the 44-point loss to No. 1 Stanford on Sunday, and they shot 28 percent from the field and turned the ball over 30 times in Saturday's 34-point defeat.

At least this time point guard Leilani McInosh was available after missing the past two games with a concussion. She had eight points and five assists, but she also had seven turnovers and was just 3-of-13 from the floor.

Freshman Alayah Daniels was the top scorer for the Bears with 14 points and 10 rebounds while playing all 40 minutes, but she was just 4-for-16 from the field.

"Dalayah is staying positive and is putting out a ton of energy and effort which helps her because she's extremely skilled and talented," Cal head coach Charmin Smith said. "When we get her to slow down a bit mentally and settle in, I think we'll see her shooting percentage go up."

The Bears -- who will be without starting guards Jazlen Greene and Alma Elsnitz the entire season because of knee injuries -- has a better shot at success in Monday's game at USC. If we assume the unranked Trojans will lose to Stanford in Saturday night's matchup, USC will be 0-4 in the conference when it faces Cal. However, the Trojans gave sixth-ranked Arizona a severe challenge, losing to the Wildcats by a point in Tucson back on Dec. 6.

Cal will be an undedog Monday as well.

Cal was competitive for a while against the Bruins on Friday, and trailed by just 12 points midway through the third quarter. But UCLA dominated play from that point on.

"We're seeing some bright spots," Smith said. "Sela [Heide] was a bright spot today and Michelle [Onyiah] continued to show her aggressiveness, but I need more, and everyone on the same page at the same time if we're going to have success on Monday."

Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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