Two weeks makes a big difference for the California women’s basketball team. On Feb. 15 the Golden Bears suffered a 62-42 loss to Oregon at McArthur Court.
Three straight wins later, Cal is set for a rematch with Oregon in the second round of the Pacific-10 Conference Tournament Saturday in San Jose, Calif.
Cal started its winning streak with a 67-61 double overtime win at Oregon State on the Beavers’ Senior Night.
Forward Devanei Hampton can be pinpointed as a big reason for Cal’s surge with her consistent efforts on offense, but likely more important was the resurgence of her supporting cast.
In the loss to Oregon, Hampton had a game-high 27 points and essentially made up the Cal offense as none of Hampton’s teammates scored more than four points.
That changed two nights later in Corvallis, where Ashley Walker had 16 points, Natasha Vital had 10 and Lauren Greif had 13. The supporting cast complemented Hampton, who led Cal with 17 points and earned the Golden Bears’ 20th win of the season, the first time the program has accomplished that feat in 15 years.
Scoring from all areas of Cal’s roster continued with four players reaching double figures in an 86-79 overtime win over USC and five in California’s 88-69 win over UCLA.
Hampton earned Pac-10 Player of the Week honors for last weekend’s performances, scoring 25 points against USC on 9-of-19 shooting. Two days later, Hampton spurred a Golden Bears comeback from a 17-point first-half deficit against the Bruins with 21 points and 13 rebounds.
Help from California
Oregon players couldn’t be blamed for glancing at the scoreboard after the Washington loss. Cal’s 88-69 win over UCLA solidified Oregon’s hold on sixth place in the Pac-10 and a first-round bye.
“I think we were, but it was kind of a sucky position because if we had won the game it would have definitely cemented (our position),” forward Eleanor Haring said. “We kind of had to depend on someone else someone else winning.”
The Ducks could have determined their fate with a win over Washington, but struggled to get anything going offensively and lost 61-46 on the Huskies senior night.
Looking at Pac-10 statistics
After spending missing 10 games and parts of two others, Jessie Shetters sits at sixth in the Pac-10 in rebounding with 7.5 per game. Cal’s Walker is first at 8.5 and Hampton is third at 7.9.
Shooting guard Kaela Chapdelaine is ninth for assists with 3.54 per game. Fellow guard Taylor Lilley has a firm hold on leading three-point percentage at .515, but just more than half as many made (35) than Stanford’s Candice Wiggins, who has hit 61 at a .427 clip.
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