Will Cal Women Be Ranked After Crushing Austin Peay?

Golden Bears improve to 11-1 with a convincing win Sunday afternoon while awaiting Monday's polls

Lulu Twidale / Photo by Rob Edwards, KLC fotos

The Cal women's basketball team easily took care of Austin Peay as expected, rolling to a 71-45 .victory over the Governors on Sunday afternoon at Haas Pavilion.

That win, which came two days after the Bears' 20-point victory over Stanford on Friday, improves Cal's record to 11-1. That's Cal's best start to a season since 2016-17, when Cal began the season 13-0.

Now the issue is whether Cal will be nationally ranked in the Associated Press poll that comes out on Monday. The last time the Bears were ranked was during the 2018-19 season, which was also Lindsay Gottlieb's final season as head coach.

The Bears began Sunday ranked No. 28 n the NET rankings, which are used when selecting the NCAA tournament field, and they were third among teams also receiving votes outside the top 25 in the AP poll this past week. So Cal would need to move up at least three spots to land a berth in the top-25.

Only one ACC team (Gerogia Tech) is unbeaten overall, and Cal and Miami are the only ones with just one defeat. But five ACC teams are ranked this week.

Point guard Kayla Williams was Cal's star against overmatched Austin Peay, which is 3-6 and played wthout head coach Brittany Young, who was undergoing a medical procedure.

Four minutes into the second quarter Willams had 13 points and she fnished with 18 points on 7-for-8 shootng, includng 3-for-3 on three-point shots. She also had eight rebounds and six assists.

The only other Cal player to score in double figures was freshman Zahra Kings, who scored 13 points while going 3-for-3 on three-pointers

Michelle Onyiah blocked five shots after having five blocks against Stanfortd on Friday.

Most of Cal's starters sat out the fourth quarter, but the Bears still managed to make 11-of-20 three-point attempts. Nine of those three-pointers came in the frst half when the Bears went 9-for-14 from long range.

Cal limited Austin Peay to 27.9% shooting from the field, but one disappointing stat for Cal was its 18 turnovers on Sunday. Turnovers have been the Bears' biggest shortcoming this season, and they committed just nine against Stanford

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