The Arizona women’s basketball team could not keep up with the California scoring attack Thursday night in Berkeley, losing the game 73-53.
Despite keeping it close in the first half, the Wildcats (9-9, 3-5 Pacific 10 conference) couldn’t slow Cal’s (11-8, 5-3) leading scorer, Alexis Gray-Dawson, who finished the game with 39 points to lead all scoring en route to the team’s fifth-straight win.
Arizona hung with the Golden Bears in the first 20 minutes. With 12:43 left in the half, the Wildcats held their largest lead of the game at 21-13 after a Davellyn Whyte free throw.
Whyte was held in check as she scored 11 points in the game, well below the 17.7 points she was averaging prior to playing Cal.
Despite the Wildcats’ early lead, the Bears’ offense would not stay dormant for long. Dawson quickly hit a 3-pointer followed by a jumper to kick-start Cal’s scoring.
Rebounding troubles again proved to be an obstacle for Arizona, especially against the Pac-10’s leading offensive rebounding team.
Arizona lost the battle on the boards 40-24, including only seven caroms on the offensive end. The low number of second chances for the Wildcats helped Cal quickly retake the lead, entering halftime with a 36-31 advantage.
After shooting 52 percent from the field in the first half, the Wildcat offense fell cold in the second half. The team shot just 33 percent which allowed the Bears to slowly build a comfortable lead.
Cal continued to take advantage of second-chance opportunities by scoring nine points off of offensive boards and went on a 15-3 run that spanned just under seven minutes in the second half to establish a 51-38 lead with 12:03 to play.
Junior Ify Ibekwe notched her near-nightly double-double by finishing with 21 points and 12 rebounds, but her play was not enough to forge a comeback against Cal.
After winning two in a row against the Oregon schools, the Wildcats gave two games right back and find themselves in a tough position as they will have to try and regroup against one of the country’s most talented teams in Palo Alto, Calif.
No. 2 Stanford (18-1, 8-0) is lauded with individual and team accomplishments. After losing in the NCAA Championship game last season, the Cardinal remain one of the dominant forces in the game and feature a duo of players unmatched in the Pac-10.
Stanford senior Jayne Appel and junior Kayla Pedersen were named to a midseason watch list of 20 candidates who are up for one of the college game’s most prestigious honors, the John R. Wooden Award.
“”You have to play a near-perfect game to beat (Stanford),”” said sophomore Reiko Thomas.
Although the Cardinal boast a laundry list of accomplishments, the last time these two teams met in Palo Alto the game went down to the wire as Stanford held on to beat Arizona 70-67.
“”It should be a good game,”” Thomas said of Saturday’s game. “”Last year we went there and lost by three when (Stanford) was still No. 2, so anything can happen.””
