No. 12 Cal pulls away in second half

When No. 12 UC Berkeley visited Jadwin Gym, the women's basketball team knew it would face a battle just to stay in the game.

"A team of this caliber tries to put you out in the first four minutes," head coach Courtney Banghart said. "But we were going to make them deal with us for the whole game."

Much to the Bears' frustration, Princeton (3-7 overall) made good on Banghart's promise, hanging within five points of California (8-1) up through halftime.

The Tigers' stamina waned in the second half, though, and a combination of spot-on shooting and aggressive rebounding finally put the Bears out of Princeton's reach, 68-42.

As in its game last Wednesday against NJIT, Princeton's solid defense formed the foundation for its offensive effort. While man-to-man coverage proved effective against the Highlanders, a zone defense was Banghart's best answer for the Bears. California sports two All-PAC 10 post players, Ashley Walker and Devanei Hampton, and the Tigers knew they would have to shut down the paint to stand a chance.

"[California's] strength is in size — those girls are not small," junior forward Whitney Downs said. "We played zone to pack on the inside and take that away — force them to shoot from the outside."

Thanks to this strategy, the first several plays found the Bears' forwards triple-teamed as they tried to close on the basket, and California's first five points had to come from jumpers on the outside. Two minutes, 13 seconds into play, however, Natasha Vital grabbed a defensive rebound and broke away down the court, handing the ball off at the last second to an airborne Walker, who banked in the layup to put the Bears up 7-0.

Though the Tigers did not answer with a similarly impressive play, it wasn't long before they began to close the gap. Senior forwards Meagan Cowher and Ali Prichard, who each finished the half with six points, drove through California's defense to get the Tigers on the board.

Princeton kept pace with the Bears' energetic style, capitalizing on turnovers and standing tall against a physical California offense, drawing several charging fouls. In the last seconds of the half, junior guard Caitlin O'Neill snatched a defensive rebound and raced down the court to put in the layup before the buzzer, leaving the Tigers just behind the Bears, 27-22.

California seemed determined to open the gap and got the second half off to a quick start, sending Kelsey Adrian down the baseline for a layup in the first 15 seconds. O'Neill answered with her own break to the basket with 18:43 to play and again at 17:05 to close the score to 33-26.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, the Bears soon bucked their first-half jump-shooting woes, and their outside shots began to fall. California netted 24 points over the final 17 minutes and owned the boards, out-rebounding Princeton, 26-10.

The Tigers ran with the Bears throughout the game, scoring off several fast breaks of their own, but the pace seemed to take a toll on Princeton, as its shots continued to roll off the rim. While the Tigers continued to generate opportunities on both sides of the court, they made only eight of 25 field-goal attempts in the second half and missed all five of their three-pointers.

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Despite the loss, the Tigers recognized that playing California was simply another step in refining their game for Ivy League play.

"From this, we take away that we can be fundamentally sound and play our game against one of the top teams in the nation," Downs said.

Princeton will have to see how well that game holds up against another top team this Wednesday at 7 p.m., when Rutgers, ranked No. 4 in the Associated Press poll, visits Jadwin. If the Tigers bring the same fluid offense and seamless defense that they played Saturday, the Scarlet Knights, like the Bears, may be in for more of a challenge than they expected.