BERKELEY – Cal (17-10, 5-10 Pac-12) came into Thursday night's regular-season home finale at Haas Pavilion seven games behind No. 10 Stanford (23-4, 13-2 Pac-12) in the conference standings but it was evident from the beginning of the Cardinal's eventual 72-66 win that the Golden Bears would hold their own against the league's first-place squad. Cal led by as many as five points in the fourth quarter but a 15-5 Stanford run over the final 3:50 of the game lifted the Cardinal to victory.
Alanna Smith scored a career-high 27 points to lead the Cardinal to help overcome a balanced Cal attack that featured five players in double figures for the fourth time this season led by Mikayla Cowling who had her fifth straight double-digit game with 14 points. Karlie Samuelson added 17 points for the winners while Erica McCall had her 11th double-double of the season with 11 points and 14 rebounds. Penina Davidson (13), Mi'Cole Cayton (11), Kristine Anigwe (10) and Asha Thomas (10) were the other Cal players to score in double figures.
"(There was) a tremendous amount of aggression," Cal head coach Lindsay Gottlieb said after the contest. "I knew we are capable of so much and it was good to see it on a stage like this, and I'm sad for the players that we can't go home with the win. I thought we had control down the stretch a little bit, but it wasn't quite good enough."
The Bears led 61-57 with 3:50 to go before Alanna Smith made a pair of free throws to start a 7-0 run in which she scored all seven points to give the Cardinal a 64-61 advantage. The Bears would fight back to tie the game twice more at 64-64 on three free throws by Mikayla Cowling with 2:16 remaining and 66-66 on a jumper by Asha Thomas with 1:50 to go that knotted the contest for the 12th time.
But the game turned a final time with just over a minute to go when Stanford was the rewarded with an offensive rebound after a lengthy officials review following a missed jumper by McCall. Seven seconds later McCall hit two free throws before blocking an Anigwe shot on Cal's next possession. Brittany McPhee would miss on the Cardinal's next trip down the floor but forced the tie-up on the rebound and Stanford was awarded the jump ball possession. McPhee scored on the ensuing out of bounds play with 0:12 seconds remaining to put the Cardinal up four and after a miss by Anigwe two free throws by Samuelson with 0:04 to go ended the scoring. The final six-point margin equaled the biggest lead by either team the entire game and marked the third consecutive game between the team decided by single digits.
There was plenty of excitement in the building even before the long-awaited first meeting of the season between the long-time rivals tipped off. Cal head coach Lindsey Gottlieb honored her Stanford colleague Tara VanDerveer on her recent 1,000th career win followed by a pre-game Senior Day ceremony complete with roses for seniors on both teams and even an appearance by Cal football legend Marshawn Lynch.
When the game finally got underway, Cal won the opening tip and 13 seconds later Cowling scored the game's first bucket on an assist by senior Courtney Range. Stanford would open up a six-point lead twice in the second period but Cal ended the opening with an 8-2 run to establish the game's fifth tie.
Cal would also score the first basket of the second half on an Anigwe jumper and never trailed in the third quarter. The Bears built their biggest lead of the game at 41-35 when Cowling nailed the second of three consecutive third-quarter three pointers by the Bears after an 0-for-7 start.
Cal started a wild fourth quarter with a 48-47 advantage that the Cardinal would erase on Smith's three-pointer just three seconds into the period. But Cal would go on a 9-2 run over the next 3:03 to establish its biggest lead of the game at 57-52 on a jumper by Cowling with 6:54 to go.
The teams meet again Sunday at Stanford (5 p.m. PT) in a contest to be televised live by Pac-12 Networks as Cal begins a string of three consecutive road games to end the 2016-17 regular season. Cal was a 63-53 winner at Stanford in 2015 and has beaten the Cardinal twice in the last four meetings at Maples Pavilion with the other a 67-55 win in 2013.
