BERKELEY -- A well played third quarter gave the No. 21 Cal women's basketball team the lead and the Bears never gave it back as they overcame a halftime deficit as well as a determined opponent to beat UC Riverside 64-58 in the 2015-16 home opener and second-annual School Haas Rock matinee at Haas Pavilion.

Courtney Range led Cal (3-0) with 20 points. Asha Thomas added 16 and Kristine Anigwe chipped in with 10. Rejane Verin led UC Riverside (2-1) with 17 points.

Cal needed to work well into the fourth quarter Friday to come away with the win. A 3-pointer by Riverside's Brittany Crain cut the Bears' lead to 60-58 with 4:25 to play, but a jumper by Mikayla Cowling on Cal's next possession provided a little more breathing room and gave the Bears a four-point advantage.

Neither team scored again until there was just under a minute to play, and it was Range who helped put the game away for the Bears. A quick post move gave the junior a look at the basket and she made it count, rising with one hand to score over the shoulder and make it 64-58. Cal dribbled out the clock from there and walked out with the hard-fought victory.

"I was very concerned about this game, first because Riverside's good," Cal head coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. "They're a veteran team, John's one of my good friends, he's a terrific coach, he has his team playing well and also because we're coming off a big win and we have a young team. That's what coaches do, they worry about the next one. I thought, all in all, Riverside probably outplayed us. They did them better than we did us but our kids were tough enough to get the win. I'm proud of us for that."

Looking to shake the doldrums of a slow start, Cal came out of intermission determined to re-take control. The Bears took their first lead since early in the second quarter when Cowling grabbed a steal, started the break and converted a twisting layup to make it 41-39 Cal with 4:57 left in the quarter.

UC Riverside countered and traded the lead with the Bears over the next few minutes, but a strong finish to the quarter left Cal in the lead. A corner 3-pointer by Cowling with 38 seconds left put the Bears up 49-46, and Thomas followed with a 3 of her own with two seconds left to give the Bears a six-point advantage heading to the fourth.

Cal trailed by two heading to halftime, with UC Riverside's ability to force turnovers helping to limit the Bears at the offensive end. Much of the Highlanders' strategy revolved around constant pressure on Anigwe, who often found herself triple or even quadruple-teamed in the post.

Neither team found much offensive flow in the first quarter, with UC Riverside shooting 29 percent and Cal 27 percent from the floor. The Highlanders moved that stat a little higher by halftime thanks in part to forcing six turnovers in the second period alone. Two free throws by Verin pushed Riverside's lead to 23-16 and capped an 8-0 run that left the Highlanders up by seven with 6:11 left in the half.

Cal got some of its mojo back over the next few minutes. Anigwe snapped the cold spell with a baseline jumper, and a steal by Thomas led to another Anigwe bucket down low to make it 23-20. The Highlanders pushed the lead back to seven in short order but a wing 3 from Range and a crossover and pull-up jumper by Thomas left the margin at 32-30 heading to the locker room.

Cal gets back to work on Sunday when it welcomes Cal Poly to Haas Pavilion for a 2 p.m. tip. From there, the Bears head to Las Vegas to participate in the South Point Tournament on Nov. 27-28 before returning to Berkeley to host Saint Mary's, Sacramento State and Villanova in the Cal Classic from Dec. 5-6.