BERKELEY – The schedule indicated that Friday night marked a beginning for the No. 18 Cal women's basketball team.
But the emotion demonstrated by head coach
Lindsay Gottlieb was nearly akin to a season-ending loss.
It wasn't the fact that Cal dropped its Pac-12 opener 84-79 in overtime to UCLA at Haas Pavilion. It was the way the Bears came together immediately following the loss that had Gottlieb choked up.
"I don't know if I've been this emotional when it hasn't been the last game of the season," Gottlieb said, pausing a handful of times to gather herself. "The end of the season is a different kind of emotion. The best way to say it tonight is that I am so invested in this team. I'm riding with this team."
The Bears took their coach on a topsy-turvy ride against the Bruins, falling behind during a sloppy first half before storming back to almost win the game in regulation. A handful of mistakes and officiating calls that didn't go Cal's way helped spike the emotion.
The loss was Cal's third in a row – all at home – after beginning the season 9-0. After the game, seniors
Kristine Anigwe and
Asha Thomas were calm and measured while offering perspective on the loss.
"I believe in this team," said Anigwe, who continued to be the only player in Division I women's basketball with a double-double in every game this season with a dominant 32 points and 14 rebounds. "I think we're going to do some damage in the (Pac-12). I truly believe we all have each other's backs. We're not just pretenders. This is a different team. We are a mature, grown team. In the past, we all wanted to win but we didn't know how to win. This year, we know how to win."
The Bears committed 11 turnovers in the first half and fell behind 42-32 at the break. But Cal turned up its defense in the third quarter and roared back with a 15-2 run to lead 55-53 at the end of the third quarter. Thomas scored eight points during the stretch, including a 3-pointer that tied it at 53-53 and a floater in the paint as the shot clock expired with 4.8 seconds remaining in the period.
Anigwe added six of her 18 second-half points during the run as part of a lunch pail performance in which she consistently muscled her way through double and triple-teams to score. Anigwe also had four steals and a pair of blocked shots.
Thomas converted an acrobatic spin move with 42.8 seconds remaining in regulation to lead 71-68, but the Bruins tied it up with 17 seconds left when forward Lajahna Drummer made the first of two free throws and teammate Michaela Onyenwere converted a putback after Drummer missed the second.
The Bears quickly fell behind in overtime 76-71 but trimmed the deficit to 80-79 on Thomas' 3-pointer off an inbounds pass with 21 seconds to go. But that marked the end of the scoring for Cal.
"We did some things that were under our control to get down in the first place," Gottlieb said. "They did their version of themselves really well and we didn't handle what they did too well early on. We have to be better in order to be the elite team we want to be. I think this team understands that."
Thomas finished with 16 points and four steals.
The Bears return to the Haas Pavilion floor Sunday against USC. Tipoff is at 3 p.m. and the game airs on the Pac-12 Networks.
"We've been through this before," Thomas said. "We know how to react. We know how to get the team to focus on the next game and change what we need to change."
