No. 20 Cal Women Off to Their Best Start Since 2012-13 With Win Over SMU

The Golden Bears matched the start of the Cal squad that reached the Final Four

Ioanna Krimili / Photo by Justine Willard, KLC fotos

Cal's 20th-ranked women's basketball team improved its record to 14-2, its best start to a season in 12 years, by beating SMU 81-66 in Dallas, Texas, on Sunday evening.

The win gave the Bears a split of their first ACC road trip after losing to Clemson on Thursday, and the 14 wins in their first 16 games matches the 14-2 start of Cal's 2012-13 team, which reached the Final Four. It remains to be seen whether Cal will remain in the rankings when the AP top-25 poll is released on Monday.

Cal has a ways to go to better the Bear's 2012-23 squad, which began the season 28-2 before losing its third game. That Cal team lost to Louisville in the NCAA tournament semifinals and finished the season 32-4.

On Sunday in Dallas, Cal (2-1 ACC) held just a four-point lead at halftime, but the Bears shot 58.3% in the second half, and that included 6-for-10 shooting on three-pointers after halftime. The Bears led by as many as 16 points in the third quarter and by as many as 19 points in the fourth quarter, winning in convicing fashion against an SMU team that defeated Stanford on Thursday.

Nya Robertson had 22 points for SMU (9-6, 1-2 ACC), but Cal countered that by having four players score in double figures. Marta Sanchez led Cal with 19 points on 8-for-12 shooting, including 3-for-3 on three-pointers. Kayla Williams scored 17 points, made 3-of-4 three-point shots and added seven assists and five rebounds. However, she also had six turnovers as the Bears committed 20 turnovers, slightly more than their troublesome average of 18.1 turnovers per contest.

The Bears' turnover problem was not as noticeably on Sunday, because the Mustangs the ball over 17 times themselves.

For the game, Cal made 50.8% of its field-goal attempts and went 10-for-25 from long range. That was beter than the Bears' 4-for-20 effort on three-pointers in the loss to Clemson.

Suarez scored 10 points for Cal in the first half, which ended with Cal holding a 40-36 lead.

The Bears used a 12-0 run to take a 12-point led at 31-19 midway through the second quarter, but SMU responded with a 10-0 run to reduce the margin to two points.

Cal was just 4-for-15 on three-pointers in the first half, while the Mustangs went 6-for-10 from long range in the first 20 minutes. But SMU committed 11 turnovers in the first half, which helped the Bears get eight more field-goal attempts.

Cal's next game is a home contest on Thursday against North Carolina State

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