Cal Women's Basketball: Bears Lose to USC, and Things Get Tougher Sunday

Cal's winning streak halted at one game; Bears host No. 10 UCLA next

Cal won its first Pac-12 game on Sunday at Washington, but the Bears' bid to win their second game in row faded in the second half of Cal's 75-67 loss to USC on Friday night at Haas Pavilion.

Cal (9-13, 1-10 Pac-12) held a seven-point lead during the first half and had a one-point lead at halftime. But the Trojans (12-10, 4-7) took control of the game in the third quarter, scoring nine conseutive points points to go from a 37-34 deficit to a 43-37 lead with 4:02 rtemaining in the third quarter. USC shot 53.3 percent from the field in the second half.

“I thought we did some things well, but we struggled to get stops and we struggled to take care of the ball,” said Cal head coach Charmin Smith said, acording to the al website. “That’s been an issue for us the last few days, and USC did enough to pull away. We’ve got to keep working to get better defensively and do a better job taking care of the ball.”

Ballhandling was a problem for the Bears, who committed 20 turnovers.

Cal got to within two points at 58-56 with 5:08 left in the fourth quarter, but the Trojans then scored seven straight points to put the Bears away.

The Bears were led by Jaelyn Brown, who scored 22 points, with 15 of them coming in the first half. Sara Anastasieska added 16 points for the Bears.

The star for USC was freshman Angel Jackson, an East Bay resident from Richmond, Calif., who had a career-high 19 points to go along with nine rebounds.

Things only get tougher for the Bears on Sunday, when they host 10th-ranked Cal in a 2 p.m. contest.