The leading scorer in Tuesday's exhibition game against Vanguard wasn't unanimous preseason All-Pac-10 Selection Alexis Gray-Lawson. She was second.

Top honors went to freshman DeNesha Stallworth, who sat sheepishly at the post-game press conference, still not familiar with the collegiate attention.

"(This game) opened my eyes and showed me what college ball is like, and it's a really big transition," Stallworth said after contributing 21 points in the No. 18 Cal women's basketball team's 101-81 win at Haas Pavilion. "But overall, I loved it."

The Bears had their new corps of freshmen -- arguably the best recruiting class in the country -- to offset the losses of All-American Devanei HAmpton and WNBA first-round selection Ashley Walker. They did what they could to fill those voids, as Brenna Heater led the game with 17 rebounds.

"Clearly, we're going to have to work on some things, but (the freshmen) played really well," Gray-Lawson said. "I don't think anyone expected them to rise to the occasion like they did."

But before the 20-point win, there was a likely unexpected four-point halftime margin.

The score in exhibition matches is often a secondary goal as teams get acclimated and experiment with their lineups, but while the Bears found their rhythm, Vanguard climbed to within two baskets at the half -- a far cry from its 107-49 loss to No. 2 Stanford only four days before.

"They played at the pace we wanted and got those easy touches, but we also had 23 turnovers," Cal coach Joanne Boyle said. "It's cleaning that piece up. I don't think we did a good job defensively and gave them too many looks."

The 46-42 halftime score was due, at least in part, to a lack of defense. And while the freshmen highlighted the offense, the veterans were there to take responsibility and lead off the ball.

"Everybody says that it starts with the guards on defense," Gray-Lawson said. "If we were pressuring more or in a better stance it wouldn't have been so hard on our post players. Them being so young, we couldn't put them in the position to foul, like they were."

The score through the first half was far from reminiscent of last season's matchup between the two teams. In that game, the Bears shook a two-point deficit less than four minutes into the match and took a lead they never relinquished.

Cal needed more than four minutes to take a commanding lead on Tuesday. In fact, it needed more than the first half to shake the defending NAIA champion Lions.

The four-point halftime margin could be traced back to the Bears' 14 turnovers and 22.2-percent perimeter shooting midway through the match, while Vanguard held the lead as late as 17 minutes into the contest.

Whereas Cal didn't allow a single three-point shot in last year's matchup, it let the Lions' three-point shooting dominate the first half of play, as they made 75 percent from beyond the arc.

But it was the long-range game that helped bring the Bears back into the game when Gray-Lawson -- who ranks second on Cal's career three-point list -- found her voice from the perimeter and went 3-for-4 in the second half.

Tags: CAL WOMEN'S BASKETBALL, DENESHA STALLWORTH, JOANNE BOYLE, ALEXIS GRAY-LAWSON