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Stanford win streak now at 15 

On Saturday afternoon, Cal’s women’s basketball team saw the chance to rid themselves of a haunting 14-game losing streak to Stanford. To Cal faithful, Saturday afternoon was to be their chance to turn the tables on their struggling arch-rivals.  

Though the Bears had the once-mighty Cardinal on its heels, they could not deliver the knockout blow. The Cardinal, led by freshman forward Nicole Powell’s 19 points and 12 rebounds, defeated the Bears 63-56 at Haas Pavilion, their 15th consecutive victory over Cal. The loss dropped the Bears record to 5-10, and 1-4 in conference play.  

“We are very disappointed,” said Cal head coach Caren Horstmeyer. “Our team came into this game with a lot of confidence that we could win.” 

The Bears were led by their senior backcourt of Courtney Johnson and Kenya Corley. Corley used her superior athleticism to repeatedly slash to the basket and led the team with 18 points. Johnson chipped in with 17 and was an imposing force on defense, leading both teams with six steals. But valiantly as they tried, neither could put the vulnerable Cardinal team away when they needed to, and neither were in the mood to celebrate any kind of moral victory after the game.  

“We lost; it doesn’t matter how close the score was,” said Johnson.  

The game was a nip-and-tuck affair, with the final outcome in question for most of the afternoon. With 2:15 remaining, the Cardinal got the ball inside to forward Lindsey Yamasaki, who scored on a nifty inside shot to give the Cardinal a 56-54 lead. After a Corley miss on the Cal end, Powell raced down the court, posted up the smaller Johnson, and scored on a short jumper that stretched the Cardinal lead to four with just 1:31 remaining. Though the Bears would come as close as three points late in the game, they could not even the score as time expired.  

Powell, playing point guard due to Stanford’s backcourt injuries, managed to hand out four assists, record four steals, and block a shot in her afternoon – none of which was possible, according to her, without her lucky headband.  

“I couldn’t think of what I forgot to pack, and when I was getting ready for the game, I couldn’t find my headband,” Powell grinned sheepishly. Luckily, Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer’s sister, Heidi, was able to pick up the equipment while en route to Berkeley. “Thank goodness for the headband,” said VanDerveer after the game. Without Nicole Powell, we would have been in real trouble.”  

The Bears were able to use their athleticism and quickness to disrupt the Cardinal offense, causing 24 Cardinal turnovers. However, the Cardinal hammered the Bears on the boards, out-rebounding them 49-34.  

“They’re a big team, and if you’re smaller, you’d better block out,” said Horstmeyer. “We didn’t do what we needed to do.”  

For Johnson, Corley, and the team’s remaining seniors, their final chance to defeat Stanford will come next month in the unfriendly Maples Pavilion.  

The Bears will stay home next week, as they host Washington State Thursday and Washington on Saturday. Both games will begin at 7:30 p.m.