Cal Bears fall to Notre Dame in ACC women’s basketball tournament

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Cal gave sixth-ranked Notre Dame all it could handle before falling 73-64 in the quarterfinals of the ACC women’s basketball tournament on Friday. But the Golden Bears’ season is far from over.

The Bears (25-8) will have to wait a week before the Sunday, March 16 NCAA Tournament selection show, but Cal’s name will be called. It’ll be the Bears’ first appearance in the Big Dance since 2019 and the first under coach Charmin Smith.

ESPN’s Charlie Creme projects the Bears to be a No. 8 seed in the NCAAs. Despite the loss to the Irish, 26-4 and the tournament’s defending champion, Cal did little if anything to hurt its tournament resume.

Smith argued the way the Bears competed Friday and throughout the ACC season should help their NCAA seed climb despite a NET ranking of No. 37, equivalent to a No. 9 seed.

“I think hopefully people could see in this game how good we are and stop putting us on an 8/9 line and not giving us the respect that we deserve for beating teams like N.C. State and Florida State and being in this conference and traveling four trips across the country when no one else was doing that but Stanford,” she said. “I think it’s crazy where our NET stands and where we are relative to other people who haven’t had to do what we have done.”

Cal opened its first ACC tournament by beating Virginia in Thursday’s second round, then nearly avenged a 91-52 loss at South Bend last month. A win against Notre Dame would have been Cal’s highest-ranked win since beating then-No. 5 Stanford on Jan. 13, 2013. It also would have given the Bears wins over three ranked teams in a season for the first time since 2019-20.

Despite committing 28 turnovers, 19 in the first half, the Bears kept the rematch close until the final minutes.

Cal, the No. 7 seed in the ACC tournament, led second-seeded Notre Dame 47-41 midway through the third quarter on the strength of a 14-3 run. But that lead vanished and the game turned when the Irish answered with a 12-0 run of their own.

Lulu Twidale led Cal with 16 points, going 4-for-7 from 3-point range. Marta Suarez and Kayla Williams each scored 14 points, and Michelle Onyiah added 13 points.

Suarez was 6-of-13 from the field and led the Bears with 11 rebounds but also had eight turnovers.

“Of course, if you’re the underdog, you’ve got to bring everything you have. You can’t be scared of mistakes,” Suarez said. “I think that was our issue. We had too many turnovers. I had too many turnovers. We know that’s fixable. We had downfalls that we know we struggled with in the past, but definitely growth. We’re not done yet.”

After lauding Notre Dame’s defense, Smith said she felt the Irish got the benefit of the officials’ whistle.