BERKELEY – The California women's basketball team used a dominating performance in the paint to come away with its 20th win of the season, defeating Boston College 72-63 at Haas Pavilion on Thursday night. The Golden Bears (20-6, 8-5 ACC) finished with a 38-18 advantage in paint points over the Eagles (13-14, 4-10) led by Michelle Onyiah who had 21 points (9-of-13) and became the 32nd player in program history to reach 1,000 career points. She also had 11 rebounds for her career-high seventh double-double of the season. Marta Suárez nearly had a double-double as well finishing with 18 points and nine rebounds. Cal shot 50.0% for the game while limiting Boston College to just 32.2% from the field.
 
The 20 wins marks the first time the Bears have reached that total under Cal head coach Charmin Smith and since the 2018-19 season.
 
Onyiah went 2-for-2 from the field and the free throw line to go on a 6-0 run of her own to start the scoring for the Bears to open the game. Suárez grabbed an offensive rebound and connected on a reverse layup to put the Bears up 17-12 before the Eagles hit a corner three with under a minute left giving Cal a two-point lead going into the second quarter.
 
A Suárez 3-point play at the 6:54 mark of the second quarter put Cal back up by five. Boston College, however responded with a 6-0 run over the next minute to get the lead back. Onyiah ended the run with a layup – which put her over the 1,000-point mark for her career. That sparked a 10-0 run to end the half which included triples from Ioanna Krimili and Lulu Twidale and put Cal up 36-25 at the break.
 
Cal continued to hold Boston College scoreless until the Eagles drew a foul and hit a free throw at the 6:00 mark of the third quarter. The Bears had a 17-point lead at that point but saw it cut to 10 before Suárez drained a 3-pointer at the 4:50 mark. Cal held Boston College to just one field goal over the last four minutes of the quarter to take a 51-41 lead into the final frame.
 
The Eagles opened the quarter with a 5-0 run to cut the deficit to five before Krimili drilled a 3-pointer. Boston College nailed a triple to get withing six points with 5:36 to go. Coming out of the media timeout, Krimili hit a midrange jumper to give Cal some breathing room. Cal went up by 10 points with 2:45 left but Boston College rattled off five straight with just over two minutes to go. That was as close as the Eagles would get as Cal answered with a Suárez layup and a couple of Jayda Noble free throws to keep Boston College at bay and secure the win. 
 
Boston College was led by T'yana Todd's 24 points.
 
NEXT UP
Cal stays home to face Syracuse on Sunday at 3 p.m.
 
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