BERKELEY – The California women's basketball team put the clamps on visiting Idaho State in front of thousands of local youths from around the East Bay to come away with the 88-36 victory at Haas Pavilion on Thursday afternoon. The 52-point margin of victory marked Cal's largest since the Golden Bears (2-0) defeated Cal State Northridge 106-44 on Dec. 30, 2015, and was the fourth largest since the 2002-03 season. The Bears were able to hold the Bengals (1-1) to under 10 points in three of the four quarters and just 22% from the field.
 
"This is a really special game to have thousands of kids here to see women's college basketball for the first time, and we wanted to really come out in front of this crowd and show them what Cal basketball is all about," Cal head coach Charmin Smith said. "I think we did that."
 
For the second straight game Ioanna Krimili hit four 3-pointers (4-of-7) as she led all scorers with 18 points to go along with three steals while Cal had four players in double figures. Five Bears brought down at least five rebounds led by Marta Suárez and Michelle Onyiah, who had eight each. Lulu Twidale dished out a career-high six assists to go along with a trio of triples.
 
The Bears jumped on the Bengals quickly as a triple from Krimili sparked a 9-0 run to give Cal an early 9-1 lead while they caused three turnovers to hold Idaho State scoreless from the field through the first four minutes. Krimili then stole an inbounds pass and found a cutting Twidale for a layup to extend the run to 12-0. The Bengals did not register their first field goal until the 4:08 mark. Twidale hit a buzzer beating 3-pointer to give the Bears a 24-7 lead going into the second quarter.
 
The Bears cooled off a bit in the second and a 3-pointer from Idaho State brought the Bengals to within 13 points at the two-minute mark. Twidale helped regain some of the momentum with another triple with a minute to go to give Cal a 35-19 lead, which it would take into halftime.
 
Cal scored the first five points of the second half on a Kayla Williams triple and Twidale layup. The Bears kept the pressure on as Williams converted a 3-point play to power a 7-0 run and give them a 47-20 lead. Cal extended its lead to 55-27 on Krimili's fourth 3-pointer of the game with 3:27 to go and kept its foot on the gas the remainder of the way to coast to the win.
 
"We had more consistent minutes of playing at a high level. The second quarter was a little bit of a lull, but other than that, I felt like we were full throttle no matter what lineup we had out there," Smith said.
 
Sophomore Anastasia Drosouni saw her first minutes as a Bear as she made her debut after missing all of last year due to injury. For the second consecutive game, Cal hit at least 10 shots from beyond the arc.
 
Idaho State was led by Halle Wright and Maria Dias, who had seven points each, and Piper Carlson, who brought down seven rebounds.
 
NEXT UP
Cal heads on the road to take on San Jose State on Saturday at 1 p.m. PT.
 
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