Balanced offense helps Cal women top USC

Balanced offense helps Cal women top USC Cal head coach Lindsay Gottlieb has spent the season hoping to find complements, not compliments, for forward Kristine Anigwe. Though Anigwe was limited to 10 points, her second-lowest total this season, her teammates picked her up as the Bears defeated USC 63-56 at Haas Pavilion. Penina Davidson came off the bench to score a team-high 17 points, Asha Thomas scored 14 and Mikayla Cowling added 10 as Cal (17-7, 5-7) — which beat No. 13 UCLA on Friday — completed its first Pac-12 weekend sweep in the past two seasons. After watching her team lose to Washington in Seattle and Washington State in Pullman the previous weekend, Gottlieb was happy to see the Bears bounce back. “This was a huge win for us, getting the home sweep,” Gottlieb said. Davidson finished 7-for-9 from the floor against the Trojans (12-11, 3-9) to lead a solid effort from Cal’s reserves, who outscored USC’s bench 23-11. “Our energy has been really good,” Davidson said. After the Washington State game, we kind of had a wake-up call. [...] if one person’s down, you have to get right back up because you have three or four more players on you, encouraging you to get better. Kristine always has a lot of pressure on her but then (Thomas) is knocking down threes, so they have to guard her and it opens up the court. Sunday’s victory didn’t come easily for Cal, which led by three points at halftime and by entering the fourth quarter. The game featured 13 lead changes and the Bears didn’t take the lead for good until Cowling’s fastbreak layup with 2:50 left made the score 55-53. A three-point play by Davidson, who had scored 14 points total in her previous four games, 23 seconds later gave the Bears breathing room. Kristen Simon scored 24 points for the Trojans. Pac-12 women’s standings Oregon State UCLA USC