No. 20 Cal Women Lose to Clemson in Basketball

A victory would have given the Bears their best start to a season in program history

Cal guard Kayla Williams / Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics

The 20th-ranked Cal women's basketball team played its first ACC road game on Thursday, and it was not a pleasant experience for the Golden Bears. Cal had its seven-game win streak abruptly ended in a 69-58 loss to Clemson.

A win would have given Cal (13-2, 1-1 ACC) its best start to a season in program history, but a poor stretch in the second half prevented the Bears from getting close to that goal.

Uncharacteristically poor shooting from three-point range led to the Bears' worst offensive performance of the season. Cal entered the game ninth in the nation in three-point percentage at 38.6% and fourth in the country in three-pointers made per games at 10.5.

Cal made 18 three-pointers in the 20-point win over Stanford back on December 13. But on Thursday at Clemson, Cal made a season-low four three-pointers in 20 attempts. That 20% shooting from long range was also a season low, and it would have been worse if Ioanna Krimili had not hit a meaningless three-pointer with 12 seconds remaining in the game.

"Itwas a poor shooting night for us, for sure," Cal coach Charmin Smith said. "But this is road basketball in the ACC and we've got to be better.”

It resulted in a season-low scoring total of 58 points, five fewer that the Bears' previous season low in points.

It was a five-minute stretch in the second half that doomed the Bears.

Cal led by two points with 7:46 left in the third quarter, and was behind by just three points with 4:37 remaining in that quarter. But that's when things went south for the Bears. They missed their final eight field-goal attempts of that quarter and their first two of the fourth quarter, allowing the Tigers (9-5, 2-1 ACC) to surge to a 17-point lead with 9:14 to go in the fourth quarter.

That five-minute stretch in which Clemson outscored Cal 14-2 was the difference in the game.

"I thought we fouled a lot it looks like," Smith said of that pivotal stretch. "I don't know the foul discrepancy was, but it was very significant. They got a lot of trips to the line in that quarter and we
weren't able to keep people in front of us. We let them get downhill, get to the rim. We know that we have to be better defensively and our defense usually sparks our offense. So if we're not getting stops we're not scoring as many points either."

Cal shot 50% in the first half but just 30% in the second half. And turnovers again hurt Cal. The Bears committed 15 turnovers, with 13 coming in the first three quarters.

Krimili led Cal with 18 points, with 13 coming in the first half, and Michelle Onyiah added 13 points and 10 rebounds. However, Lulu Twidale, who came into the game averaging 15.5 points while hitting 42.6% of her three-pointers, scored just four points and missed all three of her three-point shots.

Cal was unable to contain Clemson guards Loyal McQueen (18 points) and Mia Moore (14 points), and they dominated play throughout the game.

McQueen scored 14 points in the first half, and her a layup at the end of the second quarter gave Clemson a 36-35 lead at halftime.

Krimili scored 13 points in the first half for Cal, which led for most of the first half and held a six-point lead midway through the first quarter.  The Bears made 50% of their shots in the first half and were 2-for-6 on three-pointers, with Krimili making both of Cal’s shots from long range.

Clemson shot 46.7% from the field in the first 20 minutes, and the Tigers committed just three first-half turnovers compared with eight turnovers by the Bears.

“Sure you can learn from the loss, but I don't think we needed to," Smith said. "I think this team has had some adversity and been able to pull out wins. I wish we could have done the same today. But all we can do is just regroup and try to be ready on Sunday. I expect this to be ready to play and know that we need to fight for a split on this road trip.”.

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