By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY, CA–Michelle Onyiah didn’t need the obvious reinforced, but that’s what she got after Cal’s impressive 79-65 win over Georgia Tech on Thursday night.

Michelle, we need you. As much and as often as we can get.

Onyiah’s 12 minutes followed by her disqualification for fouls against Virginia Tech in a painful three-point loss wasn’t enough. Onyiah’s 33 minutes against the visiting Yellow Jackets was more like it, and she held up like Northern California wine with 24 points, 10 rebounds and superior 11-16 shooting from the floor.

“Michelle Onyiah didn’t foul until sometime in the third quarter,” coach Charmin Smith said in almost a formal declaration. “It’s the key to us winning games.”

With one regular season game remaining, the Bears (23-7, 11-6) are locked into the seventh seed in the upcoming ACC Tournament. They clinched that spot by distancing themselves from Georgia Tech with the win. After their regular season-concluding matchup with Miami on Sunday, the seeding and placement machines will churn and hopefully land Cal in a favorable location with preferrable matchups. While observers can see that a quarterfinal win against Notre Dame or North Carolina State could propel Cal into a situation that could yield an upset in the NCAA Tournament, Smith can’t. She’s wearing blinders and simply demanding that her team show up for Miami and take care of business.

“All that matters is we beat Miami. We can’t control all of that,” Smith stated.

Cal played big throughout with 42 points in the paint, and a 42-28 edge on the glass. A first quarter 12-0 run created the separation they needed, and Tech’s trio of scorers weren’t all present and accounted for. Dani Carnegie, Tech’s sensational freshman super sub played just 13 minutes, and was 1 for 7 from the floor.

Lulu Twidale scored 17 points for Cal, Ioanna Krimili added 15 in putting inside-outside pressure on Tech’s defense. Krimili continued her ascent on the all-time NCAA scoring list, with 2,550 points total, including 428 made threes. Cal’s season-long search for bench support seems to have landed on Jayda Noble, who played 18 minutes and contributed a key three-point play in the first quarter.