CALIFORNIA (Nov. 9) – The Vulcans opened the season with a 73-67 loss against defending-Mountain East Conference (MEC) Champion Charleston (WV) at the Convocation Center on Monday evening.
NOTES
• California and UC faced each other seven times in a five-year span from 2018-23, including five meetings in November and twice in the NCAA Tournament.
• The Golden Eagles won the MEC Championship last year after previously capturing the title in both 2021 and 2022.
• Junior
Trinity Balog recorded her second career double-double while leading the team with 22 points and a career-high 10 rebounds.
• She shot 7-of-17 from the floor and converted six-of-six from the free-throw line.
• Senior
Kennedy Bankett posted 15 points, five rebounds and three assists in 32 minutes off the bench.
• Fellow senior
Alivia Huffman added eight points and three rebounds off the bench, while sophomore transfer
Rachel Boehm finished with seven points and two steals.
• The Vulcans scored eight of the opening 12 points before the Golden Eagles tied the score at 8-8 with 4:42 left in the first quarter.
• Cal closed the quarter on a 7-2 run to take a 15-13 lead after limiting UC to 4-of-17 shooting (23.5 percent).
• The Golden Eagles started the second quarter with 11-unanswered points to take a 24-15 lead at the 7:21-mark.
• Cal cut the deficit within a possession in the final minute before UC held a 35-30 lead at halftime.
• The Golden Eagles posted the opening nine points of the third quarter before the Vulcans mounted a 13-2 run to trim the deficit to 46-43 at the 2:23-mark.
• UC held a 54-49 lead at the end of the third quarter with Cal shooting 7-of-12 from the floor in the quarter.
• The Vulcans scored nine of 10 points early in the fourth quarter to tie the score at 58-58 with 6:37 left to play.
• Cal trailed by a 70-67 margin with just over a minutes remaining before missing its final three attempts from the floor.
• The Vulcans finished the game shooting 35.7 percent (20-of-56) from the field while going 3-of-15 (20.0 percent) from long range.
• Cal also converted 24-of-28 attempts (85.7 percent) from the free-throw line.
• UC held a 47-39 rebounding advantage behind 17 offensive rebounds.
NEXT
• The Vulcans return to action this weekend with a pair of games against MEC opponents in Edinboro, Pennsylvania, beginning on Friday, Nov. 13, against West Liberty at 3 p.m.
