Cal Women's Basketball: Bears Get Past Pacific

Good start to the game helps Cal get its seventh win; poor start to the second half brings concerns

We saw two Cal women’s teams Saturday night in the Bears’ 83-66 victory over Pacific.

The first Cal team was the one that started the game and put on an offensive show, running rings around Pacific, making 14 of its first 16 shots, scoring 33 points in the first quarter and launching the Bears to a 20-point lead at halftime.

The other Cal team showed up after halftime, committing nine turnovers in the third quarter, when Cal shot poorly, lacked defensive intensity and nearly let Pacific back in the game. Cal scored more points in the first quarter than it did in the entire second half, and Pacific (5-5) outscored the Bears after halftime. The Tigers got within nine points on a few occasions in the third and fourth quarters, but simply did not have the weapons to complete the comeback.

This has sort of been the story for Cal (7-2) through the first nine games.

“Yeah, it’s like today,” Cal head coach Charmin Smith said. “We took so many steps forward at the beginning of the game, and then we kind of shuffled back a little bit. We’ve just got to be able to do it for 40 minutes.”

The saving grace for Cal was Kemery Martin, the transfer from Utah who scored a season-high 21 points and produced points when the Bears seemed to be on the verge of breaking down completely.

“This is what we know she can do,” Smith said. “We just have to give her more opportunities to do this.”

Martin was 5-for-10 on three-point shots on Saturday and is hitting 41.2% of her shots from beyond the arc for the season. She could become the perimeter complement to Jayda Curry, who scored 16 points and was 2-for-5 from three-point range. It was the 31st consecutive game that Curry has made at least one three-pointer, which is the fourth-longest streak in Pac-12 history (dating back to 1999).

Evelien Lutje Schipholt (11 points) and Peanut Tuitele (12 points) gave Cal four players in double figures, which is the kind of balance that gives Smith confidence about her offense.

“Our offense, I think, we are much improved,” Smith said. “We have a number of weapons and just having those weapons show up consistently, that’s when we’re really good.

“Defensively, we still have a lot of work to do.”

The defensive lapse was most noticeable in the third quarter, when Pacific outscored Cal 22-13.

“Third quarters are really important, especially against teams like this,” Martin said, “and for us just having more of that focus and discipline on coming out and knowing what we need to do is what we need to have a little more focus on.”

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Cover photo of Charmin Smith and Kemery Martin

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