Playing in front of a sold-out crowd, the California women's basketball team played a hard-fought battle but ultimately fell 71-60 at NC State at Valvano Arena on Sunday afternoon. The Golden Bears (9-7, 0-3 ACC) overcame an early nine-point deficit in the first quarter and eventually took leads in the second and third quarters, but it was an 11-0 run by the Wolfpack (11-4, 4-0) to end the third quarter that proved to be the difference in the game. The Bears outrebounded NC State 42-28 after the Wolfpack came into the game with a 10.6 rebounding margin which leads the ACC.
 
Freshman Taylor Barnes recorded her first-career double-double with 15 points and a career-high 11 rebounds while adding three steals and became just the fifth rookie in the ACC to accomplish the feat. Gisella Maul nearly had a double-double finishing with nine points and a game and career-high 13 rebounds. Lulu Twidale knocked down three 3-pointers for the seventh time this season on the way to 16 points and Naya Ojukwu was 7-for-7 from the field before missing her final shot attempt to finish with 14 points.
 
After the Bears found themselves in a nine-point deficit at the 5:50 mark in the first quarter, a driving Maul layup and Twidale's first triple of the game fueled a 7-0 run to get Cal to within 13-11 with 4:26 to go. Maul followed up with a layup on an out of bounds play to power an extended 12-2 run that put Cal up 18-15 with three minutes remaining in the quarter. Ojukwu came off the bench and scored four points and the Bears went into the second quarter down just 21-20.
 
With the game tied at 24-24, Twidale knocked down her second triple to retake the lead. The Wolfpack, however, would respond with a 9-0 run to take a 33-27 lead at the 5:24 mark, before Barnes drove the baseline for a layup to end the run at the 3:17 mark. Behind a layup from Ojukwu and a triple from Maul, Cal ended the quarter on a 7-0 run to get within one point at 37-36 heading into the break.
 
Barnes gave the Bears the lead back at 40-39 on a turnaround layup at the 7:19 mark and later in the quarter Twidale found a cutting Ojukwu for her 12th point of the game to put the Bears up three at the 5:26 mark. The Wolfpack then went on an 11-0 run to end the quarter to go up 56-45 going into the final frame.
 
Ojukwu remained perfect at 7-for-7 from the field and got Cal to within eight points at the 5:36 mark and then found a cutting Barnes for the layup to cut the deficit to 64-58 with 3:34 to go. The Bears forced several stops the rest of the way to give themselves a chance at cutting into the deficit further, but committed three turnovers during the stretch to prevent the comeback.
 
"I think we're doing a hell of a job competing and hopefully we can eliminate the mistakes that are getting us in some holes," Cal head coach Charmin Smith said. "I think it's an adjustment with us being without Puff [Morris] and Claudia [Langarita], and I thought we had some people step up, but hopefully we can get both of them back and give us a little more depth. We like playing in these types of environments. We like when there are people in the stands and it was a fun game from that perspective. We wanted to embrace the challenge. We know this is ACC play, and we have to get back at it and get ready to be back in Haas. I appreciated everybody's fight."
 
NC State was led by Khamil Pierre's 21 points and seven rebounds.
 
NEXT UP
Cal returns to Haas Pavilion to host Duke on Thursday at 3 p.m. PT.
 
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