BearTalk

The 13th-ranked Cal women opened their season Friday night with an 80-48 win over visiting Lehigh. Junior Gennifer Brandon, battling a minor illness, had 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Bears.

Cal held Lehigh scoreless for the game’s opening 6 minutes, forging a 14-0 lead in front of 3,528 fans at Haas Pavilion.

Guards Brittany Boyd and Layshia Clarendon added 16 and 14 points, respectively.

The Bears play next on Thursday at home against Saint Mary’s College. The game, originally scheduled for an 11 a.m. tipoff, has been changed to 7 p.m.

The Cal women’s basketball team, ranked No. 13 in the preseason AP Top-25 and No. 15 in the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll, will hold a practice open to the public on Sunday at 10 a.m. at Haas Pavilion.

The event is free.

Coach Lindsay Gottlieb will introduce players to the crowd and will be mic’d up so fans can listen to all that goes on as she conducts practice.

Here’s more from Cal.

The Bears make their season debut Thursday with an exhibition game against Vanguard at Haas Pavilion. Tipoff is 7 p.m. and admission is free.

 Oh sure, the Giants are playing for a spot in the World Series.

The final presidential debate is set to begin.

Hey, we’ve got results of the Pac-12 women’s basketball coaches poll.

Twelve-time conference champion Stanford was picked to win the league for the 12th straight season. No surprise there.

Cal checks in second, including a first-place vote from Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer, who is not permitted to vote for her own team.

2012-13 PAC-12 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL COACHES’ POLL
Team (First Place) Points
1. Stanford (11) 121
2. California (1) 109
3. UCLA 100
4. USC 91
5. Arizona State 67
Oregon State 67
7. Utah 56
8. Washington 54
9. Colorado 49
10. Washington State 40
11. Oregon 20
12. Arizona 18

The Cal men’s and women’s basketball teams will give an exhibition at the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Plaza at Memorial Stadium on Saturday before the 115th Big Game. The teams will be on hand from 11 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.

A basketball court will be constructed on the plaza and various interactive activities will be held, along with a half-court shooting contest. For more, click here.

The Cal women’s basketball team, with most of its roster intact from a 25-10 season a year ago, is ranked No. 14 in preseason polls released by Lindy’s and Athlon Sports.

The Cal women were knocked out of the NCAA tournament by top-seeded Notre Dame, falling 73-62 after playing the host team to a halftime standoff.

Layshia Clarendon, the all-Pac-12 junior guard, had 17 points but the Bears (25-10) sabotated themselves with 19 turnovers.

Rashanda Gray had 15 points off the bench for Cal.

“I think Notre Dame feeds of the crowds and gets better. I didn’t feel like our mistakes came from panic. I think it came when the other team was able to do things that rattle you,” said Cal coach Lindsay Gottlieb, whose team had 12 second-half turnovers after fighting the Irish to a 31-all standoff at the break.

“There is no question we got a little bit rattled and made some mistakes that changed the tempo of the game at the beginning of the second half.”

Notre Dame scored 24 points off Cal turnovers.

Natalie Novosel made 18 of 20 free throws and led the Irish (32-3) with 28 points. All-America point guard Skylar Diggins scored 21 points.

TIPOFF: No. 8 seed Cal (25-9, 13-5 Pac-12) vs. No. 1 Notre Dame (31-3, 15-1 Big East) in NCAA tournament second-round game at South Bend, Ind., Tuesday, 4 p.m. TV: ESPN2.

GAME THEME: The Bears hope to advance to the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2009. Cal will have to hurdle top-seeded Notre Dame on its home floor, where the Irish are 16-1 this season. The Bears and Irish have met just once, with Notre Dame posting a 62-59 victory in a 2007 NCAA first-round game at Pittsburgh. 

NOTES: The Irish feature 5-foot-9 junior guard Skylar Diggins (16.7 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 5.7 apg, 2.6 steals), one of the nation’s top all-around players. Diggins has totaled more than 400 points, 100 assists and 75 steals three seasons in a row . . . Notre Dame’s only losses were to Baylor, West Virginia and UConn . . . Notre Dame beat Liberty 74-43 on its first-round game . . . Cal advanced to the second round with an 84-74 win over Iowa in which junior guard Layshia Clarendon had 16 points and freshman guard Brittany Boyd had 15 points, eight assists, six rebounds and six steals. Her eight assists were the most-ever by a Cal player in an NCAA game.

The Cal women got 16 points from junior guard Layshia Clarendon and 15 points, eight assists and six steals from freshman Brittany Boyd in an 84-74 victory over Iowa in an opening-round NCAA tournament game at South Bend., Ind.

The eighth-seeded Bears (25-9) will take on top seed Notre Dame (31-3) on its home floor in a second-round game Tuesday.

Cal outrebounded Iowa 41-29 and had 19 offensive boards.

TIPOFF: No. 8 seed Cal (24-9, 13-5 Pac-12) vs. No. 9 Iowa (19-11, 11-5 Big Ten) in NCAA tournament at South Bend, Ind., Sunday, 9:10 a.m. TV: ESPN2.

Click here for the game advance on our website and in Sunday’s editions.

GAME THEME: The Bears make their eighth all-time venture into the NCAA tournament under first-year coach Lindsay Gottlieb. Cal last played in the NCAAs in 2009, when it made it to the regional semifinals . . . The winner of the Cal-Iowa game advances to a Tuesday second-round game vs. either No. 1 seeded Notre Dame (30-3) or Liberty (24-8).

NOTES: None of the players on Cal’s roster have played in an NCAA tournament game, but four were on the 2010 team that won the NIT crown . . . The Bears and Hawkeyes have met twice, with Cal winning both times, in 1982 and 2009 . . . Cal is 1-1 this season against teams from the Big Ten, beating Illinois 80-56 and losing to Ohio State 77-75 . . . Iowa has not played since March 2. The Bears have had four games since then, winning two and losing two (both to Stanford).

Ultimately, the Cal women had no answer for Stanford star Nneka Ogumike, who scored 29 points in the Cardinal’s 77-62 win in the finals of the Pac-12 women’s tournament.

But the Bears will earn a spot in the NCAA tournament, and they can’t wait.

“It’s not the end for us,” Cal freshman Reshanda Gray said. “We’re still going to go dancing.”

First-year coach Lindsay Gottlieb said she believes the Bears (24-9) should be seeded as a No. 6 or 7 when the pairings are announced Monday.

“I think we’ve earned that,” she said. “I couldn’t be more proud of our effort today. I have pasasionate players and they’re disappointed because they want to win. They didn’t come here for second place.”

Layshia Clarendon scored 20 points for Cal and freshman Brittany Boyd added 13, including three 3-pointers in the first half that helped the Bears overcome an early 17-4 hole.

Ogwumike, named tournament MVP for the third time, tied a record with 71 points in the tournament and made her first three 3-point baskets of the season. Her sophomore sister Chiney set a record with 37 rebounds in three games.

“I think they might be the best frontcourt ever,” Gottlieb said, “and that was before Nneka starting hitting 3s from 30 feet.”