No. 9 Cal Pounds Beavers

When California head coach Joanne Boyle speaks, her team responds.

Frustrated with what she perceived as the Cal’s stagnant offense against Oregon two days ago, Boyle voiced her displeasure. Her Bears responded to her challenge and pounded Oregon State from the opening tip.

No. 9 California rode a dominant first half to a 61-45 win and tightened its hold on first place in the Pac-10 (6-0, 15-2 overall). The Beavers drop to 1-4 (8-8 overall) with the loss.

Cal was led by the trio of juniors Alexis Gray-Lawson (14 points), Devanei Hampton (14 points), and Ashley Walker (game-high 17 points). Hampton also collected 12 rebounds.

On a day when Oregon State shot only 26%, freshman Talisa Rhea hit 6 of her 11 attempts to lead the Beavers with 16 points. Point guard Mercedes Fox-Griffin was also in double figures (10 points), while Tiffany Ducker grabbed 9 rebounds.

Boyle was happy with the effort of her charges.

“It was a good game,” said Boyle. “For the most part, we played really good defense. We’re trying to work through some things right now, trying to look at the bigger picture of what we’re trying to do here. There’s just a level of expectation that we have for ourselves, and sometimes we play to that, and sometimes we don’t. But we need to practice and play to that level every day. I thought we came out very strong today and it felt that we understood that we’re the number nine team in the country and this is how we need to play day in and day out.”

In a quick-paced first half, Cal attacked from the outset. Natasha Vital lost her defender on a cross-over and hit a pull-up jumper to open the scoring. Cal displayed its vaunted high-low game the next time down the floor, with Walker going over the top to Hampton for an easy lay-in. On the other end, the Bears’ stifling help defense forced the Beavers into a series of missed outside shots at the end of the shot clock. Tough defense also led to fastbreak opportunities for the Bears, and at the first media time-out (15:06), Cal had run out to a 14-2 lead.

“We changed it up,” said Boyle of using the zone defense. “LaVonda runs about a hundred and ten quick-hitters, and they haven’t been shooting the three very well. I don’t think she expected us to play zone—I could be wrong. But we only had one day of prep, so we thought to prepare for everything they do was going to be tough, so we decided to eliminate some of that prep time.”

“Cal is a team that we probably understand about what they’re doing more than any other team in the conference, because of my background and Joanne’s background at Duke,” said OSU head coach LaVonda Wagner, referring to the fact that they were both assistants under Gail Goestenkors. “They did exactly what we expected them to do. But they’re at home, they’re comfortable, and they have great size.”

Cal also focused on stopping Ashley Allen, who was the Pac-10’s leading scorer (20.5 ppg) entering the week. Allen only scored 7 points on 3 of 16 shooting.

“I thought we frustrated her a little bit,” said Boyle. “I was very pleased with how we did.”

“They did a very good job just being up in my face,” said Allen. “Just following me, making things difficult for me.”

Cal continued its offensive onslaught, hitting ten of its first 13 attempts. A few turnovers and missed opportunites on fast-breaks temporarily slowed the Bear momentum, but Oregon State, suffering from a miserable shooting day, could not close the gap. Cal closed out the half strong to double up on the Beavers, 42-21.

While the Bears as a team played with great intensity, it must have been heartening for Boyle to see Devanei Hampton shake off Thursday’s poor effort with a great first half. Besides collecting 10 points and eight rebounds, Hampton also forced two quick fouls on Tiffany Ducker. The Beavers’ best post player went the bench at the 17:42 mark.

“Just needed to come out with energy,” said Hampton. “My teammates have been encouraging me.”

The Bears started slowly in the second half, plagued by 4 quick turnovers and a series of missed free-throws. Oregon State could not take advantage and could only come up with two treys in the first 10 minutes.

“We’re a team that excites ourselves,” said Gray-Lawson when asked if it was difficult to maintain focus in such a lopsided game. “Coach told us, ‘You guys are up twenty, so your challenge is to keep it at twenty or build on it.’ We’ve had problems with that in the past, so we just needed to get up and down the floor as much as possible.”

The Bears ran their lead up to 27 (57-30) at the eight-minute mark and then Boyle cleared her bench, trying different combinations on the floor.

“We were playing a lot of kids in the second half,” said Boyle. “Just trying to get a little rotation, trying to get our subs some minutes, so there was a little bit of a disconnect, maybe.”

Cal maintained their 20 point lead until two late threes by Rhey made the game seemed closer than it was.

At the end of the day, the significance of this game was not in the margin of victory but in the Bears’ ability to pick up their game even against a lesser opponent.

“At shootaround, we talked about how we grinded out the Oregon game,” said Walker. “That’s not what we wanted to be known for. Like Coach said, we have higher expectations of ourselves. So in this game, we just came out of the gates running.”

“It’s about taking care of business,” maintained Boyle. “We are 15-2; we’re at a really good place. But we want more. And you just don’t get more by being average. It’s about pushing the envelope and challenging each other, and that’s just something we need to continue to do.”

Cal travels to the desert next week for a showdown with Arizona State (11-5, 5-0 Pac-10) on January 17, with first place on the line. The Bears’ game at Arizona (6-10, 0-5) on January 19 (2 p.m. PST) will be televised by Fox Sports Net.

NOTES:

• The Bears have now won 7 in a row, their longest streak since the 1991-1992 season (8 game streak).

• Devanei Hampton collected her second double-double of the year.

• Asked about her rehabilitation progress, Hampton thought her knee was at about a seven on a scale of one to ten.

• OSU’s Allen scored only 13 against Stanford, notching 20 points total for both games this weekend, less than half her average.

• Besides Allen, OSU’s other scoring threat is Brittney Davis(13.5 ppg). Davis has been coming on of late, averaging 18.5 points in the first 4 Pac-10 games. Cal held Davis to 3 points.

• Nine Bears had double-figure minutes, with no one over 30 minutes.

• The Bears were credited with 4 blocked shots (Walker 2, Hampton, N’diaye), but they tipped many more shots, as OSU found it nearly impossible to hit lay-ups inside.

• OSU shot only 21.2% in the first half. Conversely, Cal hit for 65.5%. The Bears cooled down in the second half (38.1%) and finished the game at 54%.

• Another improvement from Thursday’s game: Bears out-rebounded Beavers 38-30, after edging the Ducks by only 1.

• Kids’ Day brought 2441 pompom-waving fans, most of whom were of the Hannah Montana fanbase.

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