Cal Hands CSUN a Defeat on Opening Night

BERKELEY, Calif.—The University of California defeated CSUN 86-56 in the 2022-23 women's basketball season opener for both teams Monday night at Haas Pavilion.

FIRST HALF
Ana Carolina De Jesus scored the first six points for the Matadors as CSUN trailed the Golden Bears 7-6 at the first quarter media timeout. Despite only 33% shooting in the opening 10 minutes, Cal held CSUN scoreless for nearly five minutes and drew seven Matador fouls (resulting in 6-of-8 from the free throw line), pushing out to a six-point advantage. Behind a Tess Amundsen three-pointer, the Matadors fought back and trailed 17-13 after one period.

A 1-for-7 CSUN shooting drought early in the second quarter resulted in the Bears taking a 24-17 lead into the media timeout. Cal allowed one Matador field goal over the final 6:53 of the period. Leilani McIntosh scored six of her first half 11 points in the second helping the Bears take a 33-23 advantage at halftime.

SECOND HALF
The third quarter got off to a sluggish start as the teams committed eight fouls in the first four minutes which resulted in 11 combined free throw attempts. Eveleinn Lutje Schipholt scored six consecutive points that keyed a 10-3 spurt that resulted in Cal leading 47-29 at the third quarter media timeout. The Golden Bears outscored CSUN 33-15 for the quarter and led 66-38 after 30 minutes. CSUN battled in the fourth quarter as the Bears edged the Matadors in the period by only two points (20-18).

ACCORDING TO HEAD COACH CARLENE MITCHELL
"Looking at the stat sheet, we couldn't stop the bleed in the third quarter. You have to give them credit, they were getting in the gaps, penetrating, shooting, and making threes tonight. Cal outscored us 34-16 in the paint, so we must do a better job in our post defense and have to do a better job in our one-on-one defense."

"Offensively, they made Tess work extremely hard for every point she got. We were able to get post touches but must finish when we get it that deep. We need to regroup and make sure we are doing the little things so we will be able to compete against a team like Stanford."

THE STATS
Lutjie Schipholt led all scorers with 16 for the Golden Bears. McIntosh added 14 for Cal. Amundsen led the Matadors with 10 points.

Cal limited CSUN to 33.3% shooting (19-57) as the Golden Bears were 30-of-66 (45.5%) from the field. The Bears were 11-of-13 from the free throw line in the third quarter and 18-of-24 from the charity stripe for the game. CSUN went 12-of-17 at the free throw line.

The Matadors made six steals, forcing 10 turnovers. California had seven steals as CSUN committed 16 turnovers (against 12 assists).

NOTES
CSUN began its 48th year of competition Monday night, its 47th on the floor (the Matadors opted out of the 2020-21 season due to COVID-19)…CSUN is 27-20 in season openers…Cal has won seven in a row in the all-time series against the Matadors and now leads 7-2.

UP NEXT
CSUN is at No. 2 Stanford Wednesday night. The tip is 6 p.m. and will be streamed by Stanford on Pac-12.com.

~#UniteTheValley~

Cal Hands CSUN a Defeat on Opening Night

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Team Stats

Tess Amundsen

Jordyn Jackson

Rachel Harvey

Ana Carolina De Jesus