The California women’s basketball team used a strong defensive effort in a wire-to-wire 61-52 win over visiting Wake Forest at Haas Pavilion on Sunday afternoon. The Golden Bears (10-8, 1-4 ACC) held the Demon Deacons (12-6, 2-4) to just 14 first half points to capture their first conference win of the season and third straight against Wake Forest.
Sakima Walker paced all scorers with 17 points (7-of-14) and added three blocks for her 11th multi-block game of the season. Mjracle Sheppard pulled down a game and career-high 10 rebounds while Lulu Twidale knocked down four of Cal’s eight 3-pointers. Naya Ojukwu scored eight timely points – all in the fourth quarter. It marked the sixth time this season that the Bears held their opponents to 52 points or less.
Cal forced a couple of turnovers early and jumped out to a 10-2 lead midway through the first quarter behind Gisella Maul, who had seven of the Bears’ 10 points. Twidale’s triple as the shot clock expired gave Cal a 13-4 lead with 3:35 to go. The Bears held the Demon Deacons to just 23% from the field and took a 13-6 lead into the second quarter.
Cal opened the second quarter with a quick five unanswered points to force a Wake Forest timeout. Twidale hit her third triple of the game to continue Cal’s run and extend the lead to 21-6. The Bears held the Demon Deacons to single-digit scoring (8 points) for the second straight quarter and took a 26-14 lead into the break behind Twidale and Walker who had nine points each.
Wake Forest opened the third quarter on a 10-3 run to get back into the game and was down just 29-24 with six minutes left in the quarter before Sheppard answered with a wing 3-pointer. After the Deacons cut the deficit to five, Lola Donez drained a corner triple but Wake Forest answered with a 3-pointer of their own on the next possession. Maul was able to take back some of the momentum, drilling a 3-pointer from the top of the key as the clock expired to give Cal a 43-37 lead going into the final frame.
Up just five points, Twidale hit her fourth triple of the game with 7:40 to go. Wake Forest once again cut the deficit to just five points with 4:52 to go, before Ojukwu converted a 3-point play off an assist from Twidale and scored eight points in a two and half minute stretch to keep Wake Forest at bay as the Demon Deacons could only get as close as seven points the rest of the way.
Wake Forest was led by Mary Carter’s 14 points and seven rebounds.
“We’ve been battling, competing and playing really hard, so it’s nice to actually have it pay off in the win column,” Cal head coach Charmin Smith said. “We just had more of a sense of urgency and we were able to really take advantage of the big lineup. Things were very different for us in terms of our effort and how badly we wanted to win. We were able to feel good tonight and get some more confidence. We’ve been getting confidence because we’ve been playing with NC State, playing with North Carolina, playing with Duke, but the confidence you get from actually winning a game is even more. We need that because Syracuse is playing really well. They’re a really good team, and we got to try to win on the road.”
NEXT UP
Cal hits the road to take on Syracuse on Thursday at 3 p.m. PT.
