UAlbany Women's Basketball Loses to #9 California in Season Opener

Courtesy: UAlbany Sports Information

Berkeley, Calif. – All-American Ashley Walker scored 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting and added eight rebounds and four steals to lead California, the nation’s ninth-ranked team, past UAlbany, 63-39, in the season opener for both teams on Friday afternoon. The Golden Bears, who are ranked in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today polls, extended their home winning streak against non-conference opponents to 30 straight games at the Haas Pavilion.

This was the first time that the UAlbany program began the season against a nationally-ranked opponent, and just the second time the club faced a top-10 team after meeting No. 8 Connecticut three years ago.

The Golden Bears, who were playing without All-American Devanei Hampton, jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the opening two minutes of the game. Britney McGee put the Great Danes on the scoreboard at 17:23 when she stole the ball from the defense and converted a fastbreak layup.

Cal responded by netting the next six points and held a 20-4 advantage at the midway point of the first half. However, UAlbany trimmed the lead down to 11 points and trailed by a score of 30-19 at the half. Walker, who scored eight of her team’s first 10 points, led all scorers with 12 in the stanza, while Tiffanie Johnson had seven points and three rebounds to pace the visitors. Johnson finished with seven points and had personal-bests in rebounds (7) and steals (2).

Janea Aiken cut the lead to single digits by drilling a jumper 55 seconds into the second half, but a three-pointer by Cal’s Lauren Greif put the Golden Bears ahead again by double figures and sparked a 7-0 run. UAlbany freshman Tabitha Makopondo’s first career bucket brought the lead down to 14 points at 37-23. The Great Danes would not get any closer the rest of the way.

UAlbany was led by Aiken, who scored a team-high 14 points. Dating back to last year’s postseason tournament play, it marked the first time she recorded double-digit points in three straight contests. Ashley Lindsay and Kim Clements each had breakout performances. Lindsay set three career highs for scoring with six points on 3-of-5 shooting, grabbing four rebounds and recording three steals. Clements had eight points and finished with two steals, while her four rebounds matched her career-best.

In addition to Walker’s performance, California got strong contributions from Alexis Gray-Lawson, Casey Morris and Greif. Lawson had a game-high four assists and also added four points and three picks, while Greif just missed a double-double after finishing with nine points and eight rebounds. Morris came off the bench and had two steals to go along with a game-high two blocks.

"Our effort was good today,” said head coach Trina Patterson, whose program was facing a nationally-ranked squad for the fourth time in its Division I history. “We did not play with fear. We stayed together as a team and we did a good job of keeping the score in the sixties. Cal has a great defensive team. They were more physical than us and we never got accustomed to the bumping."

The Great Danes, who will hustle back to the Capital Region on a night flight, travel to Marist, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference preseason favorite, on Sunday. Tip-off is 4:00 p.m. The non-league game will air on Time Warner Cable.