Cal women’s basketball wins 2 games to grab Cal Classic title
Daniel Ho/File
Perhaps only the rainy weather could have put out Courtney Range’s hot hand this weekend, as she drained shot after shot to help the Cal women’s basketball team win its fifth Cal Classic in the past six tries.
In the two-day tournament, Range scored 43 points, including shooting 9-18 from beyond the arc. She led the Bears to easy victories over the University of San Francisco, 75-52, on Friday and Duquesne, 86-66, in the penultimate game on Saturday. Range was rewarded for her efforts by being named MVP of the Cal Classic Tournament.
“(Range) was terrific,” said Cal head coach Lindsay Gottlieb. “Courtney’s been really playing like a senior both emotionally and mentally. She has a lot of pieces to her game, so it’s fun when we can see them all come out at once. ”
With the pair of wins, the Bears are now 6-0 on the season, just one win away from tying their best start in program history.
In the opening game against the Dons, Cal’s suffocating defense was on full display. The Bears leapt out to a fast 25-8 lead, turning their defense into easy offense. By halftime, San Francisco was shooting at a poor 22.6 percent clip. Even so, the Dons had a chance to make the game interesting after cutting the lead down to eight late in the third quarter. A pair of threes by Mi’Cole Cayton and Range would put an end to that possibility, however, padding a comfortable lead that Cal held for the remainder of the game.
Despite Cal’s star sophomore forward Kristine Anigwe getting into foul trouble early, the Bears didn’t miss a beat offensively, assisting on 22 of their 30 made shots. Range proved she could shoulder the load with Anigwe out, scoring a season-best 25 points while grabbing 11 rebounds. With opponents now game-planning for the reigning national freshman of the year, Gottlieb has gotten her team to play well despite Anigwe’s constant double and triple teams.
“The difference this year is that (Anigwe) isn’t sneaking up on anybody,” Gottlieb said. “Teams are coming in with a Kristine game plan. It really hasn’t worked, because she’s still putting up numbers, we’ve won and other people are making shots. I think ultimately as we get towards conference … people really have to pick their poison. ”
With the win over San Francisco, the Bears advanced to the Cal Classic Championship game where they would face off against Duquesne. The Dukes won their opening round matchup by beating Western Carolina, 65-50, behind Chassidy Omogrosso’s game high 22 points.
The Bears started out fast yet again versus Duquesne, opening the game on a 14-3 run. With Anigwe staying out of foul trouble, the Bears’ offense fired on all cylinders, using their size to bully the Dukes down low and score an astonishing 44 points in the paint. On the other end, Duquesne was only able to score 14 points in the paint, instead relying on what turned out to be surprisingly efficient three-point shooting, making 13 of its 27 three-pointer attempts. Omogrosso led the Dukes with 17 points on five threes.
Still, Cal never trailed as the tandem of Anigwe and Penina Davidson down low was too much for the Dukes to overcome. Anigwe notched her fourth double-double of the season, with 19 points and 10 rebounds, while Davidson had 14 points and nine boards. Range added another 18 points. Range was named MVP while Davidson and Anigwe were named to the All-Tournament Team, along with Omogrosso, San Francisco’s Rachel Howard and Western Carolina’s Sherae Bonner.
San Francisco and Duquesne were supposed to be among the tougher teams in Cal’s nonconference schedule, as both earned bids to last season’s NCAA tournament.
“(This weekend was probably our biggest challenge thus far, and I thought the players responded emphatically,” Gottlieb said. “I like how we’re playing. The balance, especially on offense, it shows a lot having 20 assists and 10 turnovers, taking care of the ball better.”
Yet, the Bears look like they are in midseason form, having won their past three games by 20 points or more and having held all their opponents to fewer than 70 points.
“The inside-outside game is what I think we’ve really figured out,” Gottlieb said. “I think it’s a good place to be heading into Nebraska a week from now. I’m just really proud of our players.”
Jeffrey Liu covers women’s basketball. Contact him at jeffreyliu@dailycal.org
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