BERKELEY – The California women's basketball team knocked down nine 3-pointers in the first half to take control of the game early and come away with a 71-45 win over visiting Austin Peay at Haas Pavilion on Sunday afternoon. The Golden Bears (11-1, 1-0 ACC) were led by Kayla Williams who had her best all-around game of the season finishing with 18 points (7-of-8), three 3-pointers, eight rebounds and six assists. The Bears held the Governors (3-6) to just 17 points in the second half on the way to the win.
 
Michelle Onyiah tied her career high with five blocks for the second straight game while freshman Zahra King had her best game as a Bear scoring 13 points (4-of-5) to go along with a pair of 3-pointers. Cal ended up with 11 triples as a team – its sixth game this season with 10+ 3-pointers.
 
Austin Peay jumped out to an 8-2 lead before Williams drained a triple at the 6:50 mark. The Bears eventually took the lead on a Ioanna Krimili 3-pointer with five minutes to go in the quarter to cap an 8-0 run. Williams stayed hot and nailed consecutive 3-pointers to put Cal up 16-13 with under two minutes to go. Gisella Maul capped another 8-0 run with a 3-pointer as time expired to give the Bears a 21-13 lead going into the second quarter.
 
The Governors used a 6-0 run to get within four points before Lulu Twidale ended it with a corner triple. Back-to-back layups from Williams put the Bears up 30-21 forcing an Austin Peay timeout at the 6:11 mark. King kept the run going with a 3-point play on Cal's next possession. Suárez knocked in the Bears' ninth 3-pointer of the first half to put Cal up 42-25 with 2:23 to go. The Bears held the Governors to just four points over the last five minutes of the half to go up 42-28 heading into the break.
 
In the third quarter, Cal went ahead by 16 points on Krimili's second triple of the game at the 5:06 mark and Onyiah recorded two blocks in the quarter. Cal held Austin Peay to just seven points in the quarter and took a 55-35 lead going into the final frame.
 
Williams opened the fourth quarter with back-to-back layups to give Cal its biggest lead of the game up to that point at 59-37 less than two minutes into the quarter and the Bears never let the lead get below that for the rest of the game.
 
"We definitely wanted to see more opportunities for our bench," Cal head coach Charmin Smith said. "We thought this was kind of a do over after the Alabama Pacific weekend. It's hard coming off of such a huge win like Stanford to come in and match that intensity. But that was our challenge, and I thought we were better than we were in the Pacific game, so I'm happy about that. I still think we need to get better and really understand that now people are coming for us, and that takes a different level of focus. So I'd like to see us knock down our free throws. I'd like to see us keep the turnovers down and take better shots at times. Ultimately it was a good team win and we are stepping forward gradually with progress."
 
Austin Peay was led by Sa'Mya Wyatt's 15 points.
 
UP NEXT
Cal stays home to host the annual Raising The B.A.R. Invitational and will face Fordham on Saturday at 5 p.m. PT
 
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