BERKELEY - Oregon's Sabrina Ionescu drained a three-pointer at the buzzer to give the Ducks a 69-66 victory over California on Sunday afternoon at Haas Pavilion. The Golden Bears clawed back from a seven-point deficit but Ionescu's heroics handed Cal its third consecutive loss. Cal falls to 13-3 on the season and 1-3 in conference play while Oregon snapped a three-game skid of its own to earn the Ducks' first conference win of the year.
Sophomore center Kristine Anigwe led the Bears with 20 points and 10 rebounds, and scored her 1,000th point early in the third quarter, becoming the 28th member of Cal's 1,000-point club. Playing in just her 47th career game, Anigwe is the fastest player to reach the 1,000-point milestone in Cal women's basketball history and the only active underclassman in the country 1,000 points.
Lexi Bando led Oregon with 17 points, going 5-8 from beyond the arc while Ionescu – a native of Walnut Creek – added 14 points, eight rebounds, and six assists for the visiting Ducks.
Anigwe was dominant in the opening half, going a perfect 4-4 from the floor and 2-2 from the foul line. While Anigwe established her presence down low, the Bears' three-point shooting came alive following a cold performance Friday night against Oregon State. Cal went 4-6 from beyond the arc in the second quarter to take a 32-30 lead into halftime. Junior Mikayla Cowling, who had just 10 points in her last two outings combined, scored 10 of her 16 total points in the first half, going 2-3 from beyond the arc. As a team, the Bears went 7-18 from three-point point range after a 4-18 performance from downtown in Friday's loss to the 16th-ranked Beavers.
However, Oregon pulled ahead late in the third quarter, taking control on a 10-2 run as Anigwe picked up her fourth foul with 2:42 left to play in the third period. But with Anigwe on the bench, junior forward Penina Davidson got to work, scoring 11 of her 13 points in the second half as the Bears closed the seven-point deficit to four entering the fourth quarter. Davidson added six rebounds and a career-high five assists for the Bears.
The teams traded threes early in the fourth quarter before Cal pulled ahead on a 13-3 run, taking a six-point lead with 30 seconds left to play as Asha Thomas drained a pair of free throws. However, the Ducks went on frantic run to end the game, outscoring the Bears 10-1 over the final 20 seconds of play. With two seconds left on the clock, The Ducks inbounded the ball with the scored tied 66-66 and Ionescu got off the shot before time expired, connecting on her first three-pointer of the game.
"We're devastated", said Cal head coach Lindsay Gottlieb. "We made a lot of mistakes in the end - all of us - but I'm proud of our players fight to get the lead. We're better than losing three in-a-row, we're better than being beat on our home court. We're going to let this one hurt for a while, get back into practice and go on the road and beat whoever is in front of us next."
The Bears will take to the road next weekend, visiting Colorado on Friday, January 13 (6 pm PT) and Utah on Sunday, January 15 (11am PT). Colorado started the season 10-0 and was ranked as high as No. 15 in the AP Poll, but has dropped three of its last four contests.
