Tag: Ioanna Krimili

By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY, CA–Back in character, the Cal women blew past Pittsburgh, 84-53 and matched their win total for all of last season with eight games remaining.

The Golden Bears (19-4, 7-3) took off early, outscoring Pitt by nine in the first quarter, and 19 in the second. Their 46-20 halftime lead allowed Coach Charmin Smith to play her reserves extensively in the second half.

“We started off rough with the turnovers, but once we settled in, it looked like Cal basketball,” Smith said.

Lulu Twidale led Cal with 17 points, Ioanna Krimili added 16 points, six rebounds and four assists. With the outcome no longer in doubt, 12 Bears played and found their way into the scoring column. The performance was nice bounce back from Wednesday’s loss to North Carolina, the Bears first at home this season, and one in which they scored just 52 points, and seven in the decisive fourth quarter.

“Just make sure that our next game is the most important game of our lives. We always talk about that,” Marta Suarez said. “We knew we wanted to come out and execute. It was an opportunity for everyone to get minutes, and that’s important in a team game. We care about each other, we have team chemistry. I think that helps.”

Cal needed a win, in advance of their biggest road trip of the ACC schedule with games at Louisville and Notre Dame this week.

Marley Washenitz led Pitt with a career-best 20 points. Khadija Faye added 16 points, five rebounds for the Panthers, who are in trouble of missing the ACC Tournament with a 1-8 start conference play.

The Bears celebrated the memory of Kay Yow, the longtime N.C. State head coach in the Play4Kay Game. Cal wore pink uniforms and auctioned off custom-made t-shirts for the occassion.

By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY, CA–North Carolina’s ACC-leading defense, as advertised, gave the Cal Bears fits on Thursday night.

The Tar Heels forced Cal into catch-up mode from the start and kept the hosts out of step until the conclusion of the third quarter, which ended with the Bears trailing by just two points. But the fourth quarter saw the visitors’ pressure intensify, holding Cal to just seven points the rest of the way in a disappointing 65-52 loss.

The Bears squandered an opportunity to move closer to the top 16 teams nationally, who hold aspirations of hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. Cal remains entrenched in the post-season picture, but their opportunities to move up in the rankings could be limited to their upcoming road trip to Louisville and Notre Dame.

In the absence of a win, the highlight of the evening for Cal was leading scorer Ioanna Krimili’s 400th career 3-pointer. The 6th year guard moved into a select group of 16 women that have achieved the feat.

Krimili led Cal with 20 points, and Michelle Onyiah added 14 despite being limited to 18 minutes of playing time due to foul trouble and cramping. Marta Suarez and Lulu Twidale suffered rough nights shooting with a combined 5 of 23 accuracy.

UNC’s Alyssa Ustby, in her 132nd start, was again the key to the visitor’s defensive effort, limiting Suarez and Twidale individually while helping the Heels control the glass with a 38-28 edge.

“Their defensive pressure, their intensity gave us some trouble,” coach Charmin Smith said. “They kind of bullied us off our lines in trying to set screens, let alone use screens.”

Cal played without Natalia Ackerman and Giselle Maul which limited their bench production, and made the fourth quarter especially rough as fatigue and missed shots allowed UNC to increase their lead to as many as 14 points. The Bears lost at Haas Pavilion for the first time this season after rattling off 11 consecutive wins.

Cal’s weekend at home concludes with a contest against the Pitt Panthers, who have won just one of their nine conference games and are in danger of being one of the three teams that don’t qualify for the ACC Tournament. That game is scheduled for Sunday at 2 p.m.

By Morris Phillips

Won-loss records and national rankings don’t win games, seizing an opening and capturing the moment does, just like the Clemson Tigers did on Thursday night.

A 12-0 run that followed 15 lead changes broke open a close game in the fourth quarter and carried Clemson past the Cal Women 69-58 at Littlejohn Coliseum. The loss thwarted Cal’s attempt to achieve a program-first 14-1 start to a season.

“We’re slowly building this, and we’re trying to do it the right way, in a way that feels like we’re part of Clemson,” coach Shawn Poppie said of his initial win over a Top 25 opponent as Tigers head coach.

“I think they were just really aggressive, and you could tell they had a sense of urgency, and they really wanted to win this game. And, I didn’t think we matched their intensity level. It was a poor shooting night for us, for sure. But this is road basketball in the ACC, and we’ve got to be better,” coach Charmin Smith said.

Loyal McQueen led Clemson with 18 points, 14 of those before halftime, when she gave the hosts narrow leads to end the first quarter and again at the halftime break. Mia Moore, Tessa Johnson, and reserve Raven Thompson also scored in double figures for Clemson, who found success driving to the rim for scores or by getting to the free throw line.

Cal got 18 points, including three 3-pointers, from Ioanna Krimili. But her teammates were 1 of 13 from distance, which doused any opportunities for a fourth quarter comeback. The Bears four made threes, and 20 percent shooting from distance were well below the visitors’ season averages.

“I thought we fouled a lot it looks like. I don’t know the foul discrepancy was, but it was very significant. They got a lot of trips to the line in that quarter, and we
weren’t able to keep people in front of us. We let them get downhill, get to the rim. We know that we have to be better defensively, and our defense usually
sparks our offense. So if we’re not getting stops, we’re not scoring as many points either.”

Cal gets a chance to salvage their road swing at SMU on Sunday afternoon. The Mustangs won’t be an easier target after they pulled past Stanford 67-63 on Thursday.

By Morris Phillips

STOCKTON, CA–Coaches are demanding. Charmin Smith is demanding.

An 8-1 start to the season with wins over Arizona, Alabama, Auburn and Gonzaga wasn’t going to guarantee Smith’s Bears a 9-1 start and a win at Pacific Saturday.  Wanting results, she sent a group text.

“(We) messaged the whole team, ‘This Is A Really Big Game. This is a really good team. Bradley is a really good coach.’ And it took us a couple of good quarters to figure that out. But I’m glad that we were able to weather the storm and come away with the win,” Smith said.

Cal got their 9-1 start, but they didn’t play as poised as they did in the two previous wins. They couldn’t pull away as Pacific hung around by making shots when they didn’t turn it over. The host Tigers had 27 turnovers, 22 in the first three quarters.

But Cal saw some curious referee calls, and Michelle Onyiah foul out with 1:17 remaining. The free throws cut Cal’s lead to eight, and then briefly, it was cut to 70-64 with 36 seconds remaining before Cal closed.

Cal started breezy weezy with Ioanna Krimili making three 3-pointers in the first four minutes for an 11-4 lead. But their intensity waned, and Pacific led 21-19 after one quarter.

The second quarter was better for Cal by limiting the Tigers to 2 of 12 shooting. But they never gained any separation, missing 23 shots after the break. They didn’t play well without Onyiah either, who eventually fouled for the third time in four games.

The Pacific turnovers kept them from mounting a run and subdued their crowd as well. But Cal didn’t fully take advantage, scoring just 14 points off of them while flubbing a few, favorable fastbreak situations.

“I just said in the locker room to our team, we have not arrived, we have not done anything. We’ve done more than we did last year at this point. Right? By beating a Top 20 team,” Smith preached.

Krimili led Cal with 22 points, Marta Suarez had 21, and Onyiah 15 points, five rebounds in 22 minutes.

The Bears brace for Stanford’s annual appearance in Berkeley on Friday. The first-ever ACC regular season game for either team will be loud, intense, and pivotal. The two do meet a second time on January 23 at Stanford.

By Morris Phillips

SAN JOSE–The depth of talented teams in women’s college basketball is quite noticeable in the season following the Angel Reese/Caitlin Clark supernova that elevated the sport to new levels of visibility.

For Cal’s women, that means the Top 40 is the new Top 25. Most of Cal’s biggest opponents this season currently reside in the Associated Press “vote getting” group just outside the first 25. It’s that group Cal wants to join for the purpose of seizing their first NCAA Tournament berth since 2019.

The quest has begun in earnest as the Bears completed a 3-0 opening week by beating host San Jose State, 82-53, on Saturday afternoon. Coach Charmin Smith wants a physical group defensively that also plays with pace offensively without turning the ball over. Smith admits it’s a dense mix.

“I think this was the lowest in turnovers for us to only have eight,” Smith said. “And they’re a really aggressive team, so we made some strides there. We know we need to be better with taking care of the ball, so we’re just taking steps to keep moving towards who we want to be ultimately.”

Cal’s wins against SJSU, Idaho, and St. Mary’s came with an average margin of victory of 37 points, which immediately catches the attention of the pollsters. But a win on Thursday at Gonzaga, currently in that group following the Top 25, would mean more, a sign that the Bears belong.

In that group are future opponents Miami, Michigan State, Georgia Tech, Syracuse, likely Thanksgiving opponent Vanderbilt and Stanford, who Cal plays twice. In addition, Cal plays No. 24 Alabama of the SEC, and six ACC conference opponents that are ranked as high as No. 6 Notre Dame and as low as No. 19 Florida State with North Carolina State, Louisville, North Carolina, and Duke in between.

Spartans coach April Jackson admitted that Cal went further in approaching their goals than her group did on Saturday. San Jose State trailed 15-3, 23-13 after the first quarter, 40-22 and 51-28 at halftime. The third quarter was even more lopsided as SJSU made just two baskets and scored six points. With Cal emptying their bench in the fourth, the Spartans won that 10-minute stretch, 19-12.

“Cal’s a good basketball team,” Jackson said. “They’re coming off a really good season and obviously returning a lot of key pieces. I don’t want to dismiss that they are a very talented team. But I think it was a good test for us to get an opportunity to see the level of physicality that we can face down the line. So I think it was a really good opportunity for us. We played a full game, we came back in that second half and actually competed. And when you get faced with that type of adversity to finish the last 10 minutes strong and together is always a positive sign.”

Ioanna Krimili led Cal with 18 points, Kayla Williams had 16, and Lulu Twidale added 14. Michelle Onyiah had eight points, 10 rebounds, and graduate transfer Natalia Ackerman was a beehive of activity with eight points, seven rebounds, one assist, one block in only 13 minutes on the floor.

Finau Tonga was the only SJSU player to score in double figures with 12. The Spartans’ defense was largely ineffective as they forced just eight turnovers and committed 23 fouls. That led to Cal converting 21 of 25 from the foul line.