Cal U women’s 12-game win streak halted by IUP
INDIANA – The California University of Pennsylvania women’s basketball team entered Saturday afternoon’s game against archrival Indiana University of Pennsylvania, riding a 12-game win streak. The streak came to a screeching halt as the Vulcans fell, 69-50, in a PSAC West contest.
Indiana’s Katie Glaws hit the first of her five 3-pointers at the 14:50 mark of the opening half to give the Crimson Hawks a 9-7 lead that they would never relinquish.
“Turnovers did us in today,” coach Darcie Vincent said. “Sometimes we just seem like we don’t want to win. Sometimes we come out hungry and sometimes we don’t. Today they just wanted it more than we did.”
Indiana played a pressure-filled defense that seemed to rattle the Vulcans offensively as California turned the ball over 34 times on the afternoon. Despite the non-stop pressure, Vincent didn’t believe that was the root of the Vulcans’ turnover problem.
“We didn’t really turn it over because of their pressure,” said Vincent. “When you look at where we turned it over and how we turned it over, it was things like our decision making and just letting people rip the ball out of our hands that seemed to keep hurting us.”
Late in the first half, Indiana went on a 10-2 run to push its lead to 26-18 before California responded with a 3-pointer from Laura Montecalvo and consecutive lay-ups by Dani Mills and Kim Nowakowski to close the gap to one point.
Moments later, Jahzinga Tracey completed a 3-point play for Indiana and then stole the ensuing Vulcans in-bounds pass to set up Glaws for her third 3-pointer of the half to give Indiana a seven-point lead at the break.
Tracey and Glaws each finished with 22 points and shot a combined six-of-seven from behind the arc.
The Crimson Hawks used a quick 3-pointer from Tracey and a series of baskets from Kylie Miller and Kierstan Filla to push its lead to 42-30 early in the second half.
The Vulcans tried to close the gap but could never get closer than a seven-point deficit the rest of the way.
Vincent identified freshman guard Brooque Williams as one of the bright spots on an otherwise disappointing afternoon.
“I thought Brooque played really hard,” said Vincent. “She didn’t make all of her shots and she needs to work on her decision making a little bit, but I saw a player with some spark that wants to keep getting better game by game.”
Williams finished the day with eight points and matched her career high with seven rebounds.
Kim Nowakowski led all Vulcans scorers with 16 points.
The loss drops California to 2-2 in the PSAC West and a full game behind Indiana in the standings. The Vulcans return home on Monday for a game with Slippery Rock.