Cal women’s basketball can’t hold early lead in 73-64 loss to Utah
The Cal women’s basketball team (17-8, 5-8 Pac-12) lost at home to Utah (15-9, 4-9) by a score of 73-64 on Friday night.
Kristine Anigwe scored 22 points and grabbed 9 rebounds for the Bears, while Malia Nawahine paced the Utes with 16 points.
The Bears also lost to the Utes in their previous meeting on Jan. 15, with Utah holding off a late Cal run to win 63-57.
Both teams had sluggish starts, with neither team scoring their second basket until midway through the first quarter. But from there, the pace started to pick up, with both the Bears and Utes running the floor. Getting out in transition was key to Cal’s wins over UCLA and USC, and was key to a 9-0 run that put the Bears up by five at the end of the first quarter.
But sloppy turnovers by the Bears helped spark the Utes offense for the rest of the game. Utah outscored Cal 24-11 in the second quarter to go up 37-29 at halftime. Cal made a run in the third quarter, cutting the deficit to two after Jaelyn Brown hit a left-handed floater. But Cal’s 19 turnovers ultimately proved too much to overcome as the Utes were able to hang on for the win.
Full recap to follow.
Jeffrey Liu covers women’s basketball. Contact him at jeffreyliu@dailycal.org