BERKELEY –  How sweep it is! After going winless in last week's road trip in Washington, the Cal women's basketball responded in resounding fashion, beating USC, 63-56, on Sunday afternoon to complete the home sweep. The Golden Bears (17-7, 5-7 Pac-12), who upset No. 13 UCLA on Friday night, snapped their two-game losing streak against the Trojans (12-11, 3-9 Pac-12) and completed their first Pac-12 weekend sweep in the last two seasons.

"This was a huge win for us, getting the home sweep," said Cal head coach Lindsay Gottlieb. "I couldn't be more proud of how our players responded from [last week's loss in Pullman, Washington]. It's so much more than this play or that play, it's about mentality. I don't care if we were playing on the moon, we had to get a win. That was the urgency." 

The first leg of Sunday's double-header at Haas Pavilion was a tightly contested affair, neither team leading by more than four points until the Bears took a five-point lead with 2:27 left in the game. Penina Davidson converted the three-point play off an inside feed from Kristine Anigwe and the Bears held the Trojans without a field goal for the final 5:25 of the game to seal the victory.

Davidson, who had just 14 points in the Bears' last four games combined, was electric off the bench, leading Cal with 17 points and nine rebounds. The New Zealand native went 7-9 from the floor and a perfect 3-3 from the foul line, scoring in double-figures for the seventh time this season. It was a productive night from the bench as a whole, the Bears also getting valuable production off the bench from freshmen Jaelyn Brown and CJ West.

Sophomore point guard Asha Thomas added 14 points and four assists for while Anigwe had 10 points and nine rebounds. USC forward Kristine Simon led all scorers with 24 points, going 11-25 from the floor. 

Sunday's back-and-forth affair saw 13 lead changes before Cal took control for good on a fastbreak layup by Mikayla Cowling with 2:50 left in the game. Cowling finished the night with 10 points and five assists for her second consecutive game in double-figures. The Bears made it a two-possession game with Davidson's three-point play and went 5-6 from the foul line in the final minute to clinch the the victory. 

With the win, the Bears improve to 8-0 on the season against opponents from the state of California and have strung together consecutive conference wins for the first time since February 2015. Cal, who leads the conference in field goal percentage, went 24-48 from the floor, the third consecutive game shooting 50 percent or better from the field. Defensively, the Bears kept the Trojans to 40.7 percent shooting from the field and held a 35-25 advantage on the glass.

The Bears continue their five-game homestand next weekend, hosting Utah (13-9, 3-9 Pac-12) on Friday, February 10, at 6 pm PT. Cal fell to the Utes earlier this season in Salt Lake, suffering a 63-57 defeat on January 15. Utah has lost five of its last six games and is coming off a 61-55 loss to Washington State on Sunday. Friday's game and Sunday's 3 p.m. contest vs Colorado (13-10, 3-9 Pac-12) will both be televised on the Pac-12 Network and are part of the Bears' annual Play4Kay weekend.