STANFORD – After Cal swept Stanford last season for the first time since 1985-86 following the retirement of Cardinal coach Tara VanDerveer, it looked like the title of best women’s college basketball team in the Bay Area may be changing hands.
But Stanford made a stand Sunday, scoring 12 straight points in the fourth quarter to defeat Cal 78-69 at Maples Pavilion.
Junior forward Courtney Ogden scored a career-high 25 points in the ACC opener for both teams.
“Certainly no one liked what happened last year, but that was last year,” Stanford coach Kate Paye said. “We’re driving ahead. We’re not looking in the rearview mirror.”
Stanford saw its streak of 36 straight NCAA Tournaments snapped last season, while Cal made it to the NCAAs for the first time since 2019. But the Cardinal (9-2), ranked 33rd in the NET, appears to be back on track to start another postseason streak, while the Bears (8-4), ranked 67th, have some major work to do to repeat last year’s accomplishment.
A big difference on Sunday was Ogden, a five-star recruit who was known more for her shooting range when she first arrived at Stanford. Ogden hit only one 3, but she was 10 of 12 from the field and exceeded her previous high by seven points.
“Kate has encouraged me to attack the basket more, put my head down and drive,” the 6-foot-1 Ogden said. “So I’ve definitely tried to utilize that in games, practice that in practice against our bigs, and it paid off.”
Cardinal freshman Lara Somfai had 12 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks, while Chloe Cardy was 3 for 4 from behind the arc and finished with 13 points.
Forward Taylor Barnes had 16 points to lead the Bears, while fellow freshman Aliyhana “Puff” Morris had 12 points and four assists, but on 4 of 15 shooting.
Morris hit a 3-pointer to end the third quarter and then made a lay-up to start the fourth quarter to give Cal its largest lead at 57-52.
But Stanford responded with 12 straight points to take control. A steal and lay-up by Cardy put the Cardinal up 58-57 with 6:39 to play, and 3s by Somfai and Talana Lepolo extended the lead to 64-57.
The Bears went 5 ½ minutes without scoring during the decisive stretch.
Paye credited her team’s conditioning and experience in tough situations, such as being down 22-13 after the first quarter in front of a hostile crowd at Gonzaga and trailing by 8 with five minutes left against Colorado State. Stanford would win both those games.
Cal missed eight lay-ups in the fourth quarter and shot just 35 percent from the field and 25 percent from behind the arc. It still scored 69 points, the most Stanford had allowed all season.
“I think our team played hard,” Cal coach Charmin Smith said. “We just made some mistakes down the stretch that were too much to overcome, and we have to be better if we’re going to win in the ACC.”
Cal fell to 0-4 against major conference opponents, with previous losses to SEC teams Vanderbilt, Auburn, and Missouri.
“We can walk from this with some confidence knowing that we competed, that we had the lead more than they did, we did some things right,” Smith said. “We just have to continue to get better. We’re highly disappointed but we have to get ready for the next one, and I do believe this team has a lot of special moments left in it.”
Both teams are entering what Paye called the “Pac-12 stretch” of their schedules. On Sunday, Stanford will face Oregon and Cal will play No. 16 USC in a doubleheader at the Chase Center. Before that, the Cardinal hosts No. 20 Washington on Friday.