Page One

Senior center Ami Forney posted her second double-double of the weekend in a competitive loss by Cal to visiting Washington, 64-53, Saturday afternoon in its final home game at Haas Pavilion in front of 1,447 fans. 

Forney posted 10 points and 11 rebounds to record her sixth double-double of the season and 13th of her career on Senior Day in Berkeley. Cal’s other senior, guard Janet Franey, played in the final minute of the game for the Bears. 

“Today showed the incredible strides that we have made all year,” said California head coach Caren Horstmeyer. “It’s tough that you don’t get the win. Maybe I’ve said that before, but things have come together. I guess what’s most important to me is the team really believed in themselves. The bottom line is that the team did a lot of things in the year that they’ve struggled with. They have every reason to hold their heads up high. I thought we did an incredibly good defensive job.” 

A month ago, the Bears (7-18, 2-14 Pac-10) suffered their worst defeat of the season to the Huskies, 85-46, in Seattle. But today was an entirely different story, as the young Bears continued to show improvement as they have all year. 

After Washington went up 14-6 four minutes into the game, Cal responded with an 11-0 run to go up 19-14 with 12:06 left in the first half. The run was keyed by four points from sophomore guard LaTasha O’Keith and Cal’s lone three-pointer of the day, courtesy of freshman guard Jackie Lord. 

Cal took its biggest lead of the game at 26-20 and 28-22 with 6:30 until the break. But the Huskies finished the half strong on a 14-5 run with seven players scoring, spurring the Huskies to a 36-33 score at the half. Freshman guard Leigh Gregory scored all 11 of her points in the first half to pace the Bears, while Andrea Lalum paced Washington with all 10 of her game points. 

In the second half, the two teams stayed within five points of each other and were tied at the 10:50 mark at 42-42 following a Cal basket from redshirt freshman forward Kiki Williams. Washington then distanced itself from Cal with a 14-0 run. Down 56-42, Cal dug in and made one final run, but the Bears could only get as close as six at 59-53. 

After four-straight games shooting 70 percent or better from the foul line, Cal struggled this afternoon, hitting on 54.5 percent of its foul shots (12-of-22). 

Also in double figures for Cal was Williams with a team-high 12 points of the bench. Williams has posted double-figure points in five-straight games for the Bears. 

Washington was paced by 14 points from Kellie O’Neill off the bench. Giuiliana Mendiola also had 10 points for the Huskies.