Coming off a home sweep of Boston College and Syracuse, the California women's basketball team (21-6, 9-5 ACC) heads East for its final ACC regular-season road trip to face Virginia (13-13, 5-9) at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville on Thursday at 4 p.m. PT.
 
This marks the sixth all-time meeting between the programs with Virginia owning a 3-2 series advantage, including a pair of wins against Cal in the NCAA Tournament. The teams last met in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament in Waco, Texas, in a 68-62 Cavaliers victory.
 
A win against Virginia would give Cal its most wins in a single season since 2016-17 (24).
 
Virginia is led by third-year head coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton, who led the team to the second round of the inaugural Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT) and victories over four ranked opponents in 2023-24. The Cavaliers feature Kymora Johnson, who leads the teams in scoring (17.5 points per game) after being named a Second Team All-ACC and All-Freshman Team selection last season.
 
Thursday's game will be streamed on ACCNX with Corey Spector and Mack McCarthy on the call.
 
GAME INFORMATION
Date & Time: Thursday, Feb. 20 |4 p.m. PT
Broadcast: ACCNX
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
 
QUICK HITS
In the win over Syracuse on Sunday:

• Kayla Williams posted her third 20-point outing of the season with 21 points (7-of-13) to go along with five assists and three steals.
• Marta Saurez also had an efficient outing going 6-for-10 to finish with 16 points and six rebounds.
• Lulu Twidale connected on three triples.
• The Bears had their most free throw makes (20) and attempts (29) since going 23-of-29 against Pacific on Dec. 7.
• Cal scored 38 points in the paint for the second consecutive game.
• Cal got its second ACC weekend sweep of the season.

NCAA Team Rankings (as of Feb. 17)

• Total 3-pointers made - 17th (233)
• 3-point makes per game - 21st (8.6)
• Field goal percentage - 41st (45.5)
• Scoring - 65th (73.1) 

Player Notes

• Ioanna Krimili's 413 career 3-pointers rank 13th on the NCAA's all-time career list. She needs to hit 12 more to move into a tie for 10th place all time.
• Krimili is just two points shy of 2,500 for her career - a milestone only 84 players in the history of NCAA DI women's basketball have reached (since 1981-82).
• Krimili and Twidale are the best 3-point shooting duo in the nation. Krimili is ranked 11th (76) while Twidale is ranked 12th (75) (through Feb. 17). No other school has a duo who have combined for more made 3-pointers or rank in the top 25.
• Twidale leads all sophomores in the nation in made 3-pointers (through Feb. 17).
• Suarez is 1 of 6 players in the conference to rank in the top 25 in scoring, rebounding and field goal percentage (47.6) during ACC play. Her 16 3-pointers in conference play rank third among the nine players.
• Suarez is one of only 12 forwards in the country and only one of two in the ACC shooting at least 47% from the field and 32% from deep (min. 90 3PTA).
• Williams is just one of five players in the nation shooting at least 49.0% from the field and 39.0% from deep and totaling at least 115 assists on the season.
• Onyiah is setting career single-season highs across several categories this year: FG% (60.7), rebounding (7.1) and scoring (11.1). During ACC play she is shooting 62.3% from the field.
• Of the 379 active players with 1,000 career points Onyiah is one of only 18 that have shot at least 53.0% and grabbed at least 750 rebounds over their career.

Team Notes

• At 21-6, Cal is off to its best overall start under Smith and since the 2012-13 season (20-2). Cal's six road wins are the most under Smith.
• Cal is one of 25 teams in the country with at least seven Quad 1 or 2 wins.
• Cal is currently 9-5 against teams from the 2024 NCAA Tournament with wins over No. 19 Alabama, No. 21 NC State, Florida State, Gonzaga, Auburn, Arizona, Syracuse and Stanford (twice).
• Entering this week, Cal is one of only 10 schools in the country to have five players averaging over 10 points per game.
• Four of the Bears' six losses this season have come against teams that were ranked or receiving votes at the time.

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