Kelly Fang/File

The fact that the Cal women’s basketball team, fresh off its first Final Four appearance, is only No. 5 in the power ranking is, personally, hogwash.

Upon further introspection, however, I do think the Bears landing No. 5 is fairer than it seems at face value for two reasons. First, it is just a testament to how successful 2013 was to Cal athletics as a whole. Second, the graduation of the seniors leaves the team thinner and more unknown, making it hard to gauge its potential.

The power rankings — or at least how I interpret them — are meant to rank where Cal teams stand at this moment, on July 1. And I’d be the first one to say I have no idea where next year’s women’s basketball team will stand.

The women’s basketball team will be good — that’s for sure. But relative to their new expectations, which have skyrocketed in the past months, we don’t know if the Bears will meet the self-set benchmarks next year.

The departures of seniors Layshia Clarendon, Talia Caldwell and Eliza Pierre leave big holes that coach Lindsay Gottlieb hasn’t yet filled in. How will Caldwell’s imposing size and rebounding prowess by the rim be replaced? Who will play the sixth woman with great energy and defensive tenacity like Pierre? Who will follow Clarendon’s footsteps as the leading scorer on the team?

All three questions so far have insufficient answers. For Caldwell’s question, the four-player post rotation of Caldwell, Gennifer Brandon, Reshanda Gray and Justine Hartman will continue, with junior forward Kyra Dunn — who transferred from Pittsburgh and sat out last year — replacing Caldwell.

Brandon and Gray are proven products, but Hartman and Dunn are not. Junior Hartman, who was the most coveted prospect to join Cal in 2011, has size closest to Caldwell but hasn’t shown enough polish to prove to Gottlieb that she can play major minutes. Hartman is the X-factor inside the post.

The answer to Pierre’s absence is the least obvious and the least urgent. Her game will be missed — but not irreplaceable. Either a veteran guard, such as Mikayla Lyles, or a freshman recruit might be sufficient enough to play Pierre’s role.

The answer to Clarendon’s absence is, however, more complex and much more urgent. The prowess of Cal’s post made the team good, but it was Clarendon that made this team Final Four material.

The obvious answer is junior guard Brittany Boyd. But Boyd, a point guard, is more built as a ball handler and distributor than a scorer. Her perimeter shooting was poor last season (29 percent in 3-point shooting) and is still a long way from Clarendon’s level.

Junior transfer Brittany Shine — who, like Dunn, sat out last year — is an alternate solution. But like Dunn, she’s an unproven product. Perhaps she is a better fit at shooting guard than Boyd, but we don’t know right now.

The Bears have tons of talent in their arsenal at this moment. But the $64,000 question of how the talent will translate into success next year still remains to be seen.

Contact Seung Y. Lee at sylee@dailycal.org Follow him on Twitter @sngyn92.

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Kelly Fang/File

NEW ORLEANS — If the Cal women’s basketball team can become the powerhouse coach Lindsay Gottlieb promised it could be 10 or 20 years from now, all will point toward this season as the breakthrough campaign that made it all possible.

All traditional powerhouses, like UConn and Stanford, had that special season in which they made the leap to elite status. UConn, under coach Geno Auriemma, made its first Final Four in 1995 and has won seven national championships since. Stanford, under coach Tara VanDerveer, took its jump as the dominant women’s basketball club on the West Coast in 1990 with a national championship.

In 2013, the Bears stand at a crossroads. The 32 wins this season and the journey to their first Final Four appearance paved two paths that forked as the season came to a close on Sunday: Can Cal continue its development as a perennial Final Four contender? Or will it peter off back into being Pac-12’s No. 2 behind Stanford?

With the 64-57 loss to Louisville in the Final Four at New Orleans, four seniors who constituted the greatest recruiting class in program history are no longer with the team. Picked as the best recruiting class back in 2009, they have more than met expectations. Before coach Lindsay Gottlieb’s arrival in 2011, the program was in slow decline, missing out on the NCAA Tournament and marred by a growing list of players transferring from Cal.

Of the four, guard Layshia Clarendon leaves the biggest hole. Once the lowest-ranked player in the class of 2009, Clarendon established herself as the primary scoring option and the central leader of the team.

On the court, Clarendon developed her game from that of an average combo guard to a nationally acclaimed shooting guard. She perfected her midrange jumper in her senior season, making her a coveted player in the upcoming WNBA draft.

As Clarendon leaves the Bears’ backcourt, she will pass the torch to sophomore guard Brittany Boyd. The symbiosis between Clarendon and Boyd over the past two years was a match made in heaven; Clarendon’s weaknesses, such as ballhandling and distributing, were veiled by Boyd’s excellent point guard skills.

Without Clarendon’s presence, Boyd will be put on the spotlight, and the shortcomings of her game will be targeted by opposing teams. For the Bears’ to succeed in the next two seasons, Boyd will need to develop a more consistent shooting game and lessen the recklessness in her playing style.

But Boyd won’t be alone in the backcourt.

Brittany Shine, who transferred last year from Florida, provides an interesting wrinkle in Cal’s high-octane offense. Although Shine has not played for the Bears this season due to in-residence transfer rules, Gottlieb praised her speed and experience in the SEC and believes she will slide into the backcourt without creating any awkwardness.

Shine will be joined next year by Kyra Dunn, a forward who transferred from Pittsburgh. With senior center Talia Caldwell leaving, Dunn will keep the post rotation in tune.

In addition to Shine and Dunn, there will be freshmen on the team for the first time since 2011. Excluding Gennifer Brandon, Mikayla Lyles, Avigiel Cohen and Afure Jemerigbe, the rest of the team will have been recruited by Gottlieb to come to Berkeley.

For the first time, Gottlieb will have a chance to sculpt the team to her philosophy. However, this can also mean the team trailing off from its Final Four zenith back into rebuilding mode as the players pick up Gottlieb’s system and adjust to the collegiate game.

But is there pressure for Gottlieb to make the Final Four again? Yes, Auriemma and VanDerveer made their first Final Four appearances when they were around Gottlieb’s current age (35), but it took them several more years to cement their elite status.

Yes, the team does stand at a forked road that can redefine how this program fits in the national landscape. But one, two or four years down the line is too early to tout Cal’s premier standing.

The verdict will come 10 or 20 years from now, when all point to 2013 as the season that started it all

Seung Y. Lee covers men’s basketball. Contact him at sylee@dailycal.org Follow him on Twitter @sngyn92.

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NEW ORLEANS — My first memory of the Cal women’s basketball team was me anxiously waiting in the Haas Club Room to hear first-year coach Lindsay Gottlieb and the players speak before the 2011 season started 18 months ago.

As Gottlieb walked to the podium, I remember thinking how she looked far too young to lead a Division I basketball team. As she began to speak at a lightning-fast pace, I remember scribbling illegible notes to keep up.

But the biggest takeaway from that day for me was the genuine excitement that pervaded the room, from the coaches and players. Players and coaches of other sports all say before the season that they are excited to start, but I could have sliced through this team’s enthusiasm that day with a knife and served it on plates.

And for the next 18 months, I covered the team, following their play from Berkeley to Stanford to now, in New Orleans. And through the next 18 months, the eagerness in that Haas Club Room never faded — it only grew.

As the women’s basketball beat reporter last year, I had lots of fun covering the games and interviewing the team. Gottlieb and the players had nothing to hide and shared a wealth of information with me, making my job easier.

But that genuineness of the team won me over underneath my reporter’s facade. Their camaraderie, openness and on-court success made it hard for me to remain truly indifferent.

Despite ceding the beat to new writers this year, I followed the team closely and was always impressed at the rate of its growth. Last year, I was in the upper press box at the edges of Maples Pavilion, getting excited as Cal took Stanford to overtime; now, the Bears were slaying Stanford-sized goliaths, including Stanford itself at Maples, left and right.

Now, here I am in New Orleans, two days after Cal’s first-ever Final Four appearance in program history. The team achieved previously unreached heights, and as a person who saw the team grow under Gottlieb to become a Final Four contender, I found it incredibly rewarding to see.

I was there in the near-empty Haas Pavilion for the start of the Gottlieb era last year. I wanted to be in the New Orleans Arena covering the peak moment of Cal women’s basketball.

I wanted to save this column for after Tuesday after the Bears advanced to the title game. But that didn’t happen. On Sunday night, Cal’s lead slipped away in the final moments to Louisville.

My disappointment only multiplied when I saw Gottlieb and the players looking glum through the postgame press conference. The ride was over. The excitement was no longer there.

Despite the bitter taste of the season’s end, I wanted to remember this team from two angles. First, these two seasons were probably the best stretch in Cal women’s basketball history. Second, they were able to reach such unprecedented success with student-athletes who were passionate about their university and their fans no like others.

There were no better representatives to symbolize Cal in New Orleans and on national television than this team.

Once upon a time, before I started covering women’s basketball, someone older and wiser told me the two sacred rules of journalism. The first was to remain objective at all times. The second was to remain empathetic to your subjects.

I may be breaking the first sacred rule today with this column, but I couldn’t let this opportunity go by without saying the following words:

Congratulations to coach Gottlieb and the team for reaching the Final Four. It was one heck of a ride, and I was privileged to see it from beginning to end.

Seung Y. Lee covers men’s basketball. Contact him at sylee@dailycal.org Follow him on Twitter @sngyn92.

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Michael Tao/Senior Staff

NEW ORLEANS — Perhaps the Cal women’s basketball team tempted fate one too many times.

After taking a 10-point lead over Louisville (29-8) heading into halftime in the New Orleans Arena Sunday afternoon, the Bears slowly fell apart in the second half. They eventually succumbed to the Cardinals, 64-57, in the program’s first ever Final Four appearance.

Cal’s road to New Orleans was no smooth waltz. From a 82-78 overtime win against South Florida in the second round to the 65-62 comeback victory against Georgia in the Elite Eight, the Bears (32-4) kept their games too close for comfort.

But the Bears always pulled through, concocting something late in the game to pull ahead of the opponents. Cal played catch-up basketball all the way to the Final Four.

When the Bears took a 37-27 lead to halftime on Sunday afternoon, they were in uncharted territory. Cal played its best basketball in the tournament, shooting 58.6 percent from the floor and locking down the Cardinals defensively.

Then, in the second half, the Bears unraveled under Louisville’s relentless 3-point shooting and defensive pressure. The 10-point lead slowly evaporated, and at the three-minute mark Louisville took the lead.

It was time for the Bears to play catch-up basketball once again. But they never could place the pieces together. Louisville was always one step ahead.

“They did what they do a little better than what we do (in the second half),” said Cal coach Lindsay Gottlieb.

As a layup from Louisville guard Bria Smith with 2:46 remaining in the game gave the Cardinals its first lead since the first four minutes of the game, the Bears couldn’t attack the basket to take back the lead.

After cherry-picking easy layups in the first half, Cal was stuffed from the frontcourt, unable to produce any opportunities inside. Guards Layshia Clarendon and Brittany Boyd tried to pump the ball inside, but it only led to consecutive turnovers that blocked the Bears’ offensive flow altogether.

Despite outrebounding the Cardinals 38-26, Cal’s 19 turnovers was too much for the players to overcome.

“They were throwing a lot of junk defenses at us,” Clarendon said. “We turned the ball over, and they were picking up momentum. In the last two minutes, we got a little panicked.”

Clarendon did her best to keep the team in contention. The senior knocked down a 3-pointer to tie the game at 57. It was Cal’s last glimmer of hope.

In her last game in a Cal uniform, Clarendon scored a team-high 17 points in an 8-for-18 shooting performance. Despite tallying nine points in the second half, her effectiveness as the primary scoring option declined due to Louisville’s nonstop, in-face defense.

In the last two minutes of the game, Cardinals forward Sara Hammond became the late bloomer that carried her team to the title game. Hammond — who was instrumental in locking down Baylor center Brittany Griner earlier in the tournament — was nullified for most of the game. In the first half, the sophomore forward scored zero points; in the second half, she scored nine.

After Hammond’s layup and a free throw gave Louisville a 60-57 lead, the Bears floundered offensively to find a way to close the gap. With only 30 seconds remaining, Gottlieb placed 3-point specialist Mikayla Lyles, who had not played in the game beforehand, on the court.

“We really wanted to run a that ran multiple options,” Gottlieb said. “We have an end-of-the-game play. We put the extra shooter out there to extend the defense.”

The ball for the season-deciding possession was intended to go to Clarendon. However, as Clarendon was tightly double-teamed, the ball went to Lyles’ hands to tie the game.

Lyles missed the open 3-point jumper, and Louisville rebounded the ball. She had one more 3-point attempt in the dying seconds when the game was virtually over, but she missed that as well.

“I’d take that look,” Gottlieb said, defending Lyles’ decision to shoot the all-important field goal.

Unlike Cal, Louisville lived and died by its 3-pointer, its main weapon of choice that brought them to the Final Four in the first place. As the team that knocked off women’s basketball Goliath Baylor with its 64 percent 3-point shooting performance, the Cardinals relied on long-distance shooters like Antonita Slaughter and Shoni Schimmel to keep the game close.

As fitting to her name, Slaughter was ruthless with her faraway sniper shots. She let the Cardinals with 18 points, all of which came from her six 3-point shots.

After shooting 1-for-7 in the first half, Schimmel scored 10 points in the game. Smith stepped into Schimmel’s role as the primary scoring option for Louisville with a 17-point performance.

From tip-off, Smith established herself as the primary scoring option for the Cardinals. Louisville started with a 8-2 start, with Smith scoring four of the eight points.

But Louisville’s dominance on the court was short-lived. Cal went on a 14-2 run that set the tone toward the Bears’ direction for the rest of the first half.

Contrasted with shooting 21 3-pointers in the Georgia game, Cal was more prudent and aggressive with the ball, choosing to drive in and find the open space near the post rather than taking the long jumper.

Boyd set the tone with her blistering pace down the court, driving head-on into the paint and relishing in contact with the Cardinal defender camping under the post.

As she did most of the season, Boyd walked a fine line between assertiveness and recklessness. The sophomore scored 10 points the whole game, mostly in fastbreak layups. However, she put herself in foul trouble in the first half and injured her back and fingers.

By the last minutes the game, Boyd became a non-factor in Cal’s offense.

After the game, Gottlieb and her players acknowledged they haven’t fully digested the pain of the loss. However, the Bears focused on talking about the legacy this season left for the future of the program.

In their eyes, luck and fate had no place establishing Cal as a West Coast powerhouse of college women’s basketball.

“We weren’t some Cinderella team who made a run this year,” Clarendon said. “This is what Cal basketball’s going to be.”

Contact Seung Y. Lee at sylee@dailycal.org Follow him on Twitter @sngyn92.

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The Cal women’s basketball team’s season ended Sunday evening with a 64-57 loss to Louisville in the national semifinal. The loss ends a historic season for the Bears, in which they advanced to their first Final Four in season history.

Full recap to follow.

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Kay Yang/File

On Sunday, two titans will clash in New Orleans for a shot at the NCAA women’s basketball championship game.

The Cal-Louisville matchup at 3:36 p.m. is not that battle.

Both No. 1 seeds, white-hot UConn and Notre Dame blistered their respective opponents in previous rounds. Sunday’s 5:30 p.m. tilt has the potential to be a battle of Goliaths.

But two hours earlier, two Davids will tip off in the undercard matinee not simply for a slot in the championship game but also for the chance to make history.

“UConn and Notre Dame are tried and true — they’ve been there,” said Cal coach Lindsay Gottlieb in Wednesday’s press conference. “The fact that us and Louisville broke into the Final Four, I think, is going to be a good for the game.”

For the Bears (32-3), the experience is unprecedented: No Cal women’s basketball team has ever earned a Final Four bid.

Meanwhile, Louisville (28-8) is only the second No. 5 seed to ever reach the Final Four. And if the squad wins, it would be the first team ranked lower than fourth to reach the title game.

It comes as no surprise, then, that the Cardinals have heart-and-soul embraced the role of the underdog this year.

The outsider status is no albatross around Louisville’s neck. The message is clear: With nothing to lose, the team has already gained an incredible victory.

The team stunned the nation when it upset top-seed juggernaut and reigning champ Baylor, 82-81, in the Sweet Sixteen.

It was the toppling heard ‘round the country, the way Gottlieb tells it.

“We have basketball fans (on the team),” Gottlieb said Wednesday. “Everyone was kind of like, ‘Wow, did this just happen?’”

The shock waves reverberated through the next round, in which the Cardinals dismantled Tennessee.

“We ruined the entire party,’’ said Louisville coach Jeff Walz. ‘’We’re the ugly ducklings that ruined the party. No one gave us a chance, and we shocked everybody. It’s a journey, and we’re going to continue.’’

Louisville might have ruined the party, but the team has since proven it certainly can dance.

However, before the Cardinals can potentially upset another top seed, they have to contend with a Cal squad that has consistently met — and sometimes exceeded – the lofty expectations of its coach all year long.

Yet the Bears aren’t underdogs so much as they are upstarts with a lightning-fast rise. In her first year with the program last year, Gottlieb took the team to the NCAA journey for the first time since 2009.

Last fall, Cal opened up the season ranked No. 13 and climbed as high as No. 5. In January, the team even toppled conference rival Stanford, ending the latter’s 81-game conference win streak. The Bears would eventually share the Pac-12 title with the Cardinal — Cal’s first conference title in program history.

If Louisville’s mantra is “nothing to lose,” then Cal’s is “why not us?” The team has known all along that it has what it takes to tackle — and trump — the very best.

“We have been in situations where we’ve had to beat these giants of college basketball, and I think now they feel like,`Why not us?’” Gottlieb said.

But some trumps have come after close calls.

The scores of each of the games in the tournament have been too close for comfort. What looks like a commanding 90-76 win over Fresno State in the opening round sobers up a bit with the caveat that the Bulldogs were a 15-seed.

At the Pac-12 tournament last month, Cal failed to penetrate UCLA’s zone defense and lost in the semifinals.

Hints of that same struggle resurfaced in Monday’s contest with Georgia. Throughout the first half, Cal remained on the outskirts of the key, unable to break through Georgia’s defense. The team trailed for the majority of the game; with seven minutes left in the game, the team was down by 10 points.

Then something clicked.

With mere seconds, left, the Bears tied the game and headed to overtime. Senior guard Layshia Clarendon lit up the stage, scoring 17 of her game-high 25 points in the second half and extra minutes. It wasn’t pretty, but Cal scraped out a 65-62 thriller to live another day.

Those scrapes, undoubtedly, are part of a larger learning curve. In December, the team faced off against No. 4 Duke and fell, 77-63. But in typical Cal fashion, Gottlieb quickly transformed the loss into yet another source of positive motivation.

“I told them after we lost at Duke: ‘We scheduled this game for a reason,’” she said on Wednesday. “‘So that we understand what it takes to beat a team like that.’”

On Sunday, the Bears finally have the chance to prove whether they mastered that lesson.

Contact Annie Gerlach at agerlach@dailycal.org

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Breathe it in. Soak it up. Because, possibly, you’ll never see anything quite like this.

For the first 36 minutes against Georgia Monday night, the Cal women’s basketball team did not play Cal basketball. Star forward Gennifer Brandon couldn’t make a single shot. The offense was stuffed by Georgia’s zone defense.

Then it all just clicked at the most pivotal time. Layshia Clarendon played the game of her career, singlehandedly carrying her team to tie the game at the end of regulation and winning the contest in overtime. The team got the timely rebounds and hustle plays that separate winners from losers.

It was heart-pounding and thrilling. Cal fans, jaded from years of tantalizing Cinderella runs and subsequent disappointments, readied for another disappointment to add to the long list. High expectations and hope were the cardinal sins of any Cal fan.

But this time, the disappointment never came to reality. The victory was incredibly refreshing. While the women’s basketball team always labels its brand of basketball “Cal basketball,” it was so un-Cal.

In a university filled with half-century-long droughts in the major sports, the 40-year-old Cal women’s basketball team just ended one by reaching its first-ever Final Four. For the first time in a very long time, a major sport from Cal is now a force to be reckoned with on the national landscape.

Since 1960, Cal basketball (both men’s and women’s) has been waiting for a Final Four contender to arrive at Berkeley. Few would have guessed that it would be the women’s basketball team to take the program to the long-awaited promised land.

A lot has changed in the last 53 years. First and foremost, the women’s basketball team was born under Title IX in 1972. Then in the 1990s and the 2000s, Stanford carved its niche as the sole powerhouse of Pac-12 women’s basketball.

Cal, in its 40-year history, had flashes of brilliance but couldn’t take that pivotal step in consolidating itself as one of the top programs in the nation.

But on Monday night, the program finally took the giant leap to be considered an elite program. The Bears are heading to New Orleans. Cal is in the Final Four.

And this is probably not going anywhere for a very long time. In only her second year as coach at UC Berkeley, Lindsay Gottlieb has been a miracle worker, building a foundation around her strong enough to compete with the Stanfords of college women’s basketball.

The 35-year old coach, arguably the best young coach in college women’s basketball, won’t be leaving anytime soon. Once an assistant coach to former head coach Joanne Boyle, Gottlieb planted her coaching roots at Cal.

A graduate of Brown University, Gottlieb has embraced the program and university. Wearing her emotions on her sleeves, her admiration and love of the university is genuine and contagious. She means it when she says that she wants to turn Cal into a women’s basketball powerhouse.

While football coaches and men’s basketball coaches have fallen short in putting the Bears on the national map, Gottlieb did it in two years. With a proven track record, a young, dedicated head coach and a solid foundation, perhaps it’s time to accept women’s basketball as the premier major sport at Cal and foster it by any means necessary to become the next Tennessee, Connecticut or Stanford.

Last year, when Gottlieb was still making her stamp as the head coach, she said she wanted to hit a home run: to deliver a Final Four appearance to Berkeley one day.

That one day was Monday night at Spokane, Wash. Welcome to the new Cal basketball.

Contact Seung Y. Lee at sylee@dailycal.org Follow him on Twitter @sngyn92.

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Liz Kishimoto/Courtesy

All year long, head coach Lindsay Gottlieb wanted the Cal women’s basketball team to be recognized as an elite team. On Monday night at Spokane, Wash., the team took one step further in solidifying its rising recognition.

The No. 2 seed Bears defeated No. 4 seed Georgia (28-7, 11-4) in a 65-62 overtime thriller to win the Spokane Regional. After advancing to the program’s first-ever trip to the Elite Eight, Cal secured a trip to the Final Four in New Orleans.

The first 10 minutes of the game, however, brought out a Cal team that looked nothing like the Pac-12’s highest-scoring offense. The Bears, who rely on their active guards to drive into the paint, were silenced by Georgia’s aggressive 2-3 zone defense.

Though the Bears (32-3, 16-1) were dominating the offensive boards — six rebounds compared to the Bulldogs’ one — they could not finish their opportunities. Making only one of its first 18 field goals, Cal’s ice-cold shooting didn’t help to spread the floor either.

Guard Afure Jemerigbe, usually a quiet factor on offense, kept the Bears close on the scoreboard. The junior guard led the team early with six points as the team tied the game at 11.

The post players initially struggled heavily. Forward Gennifer Brandon’s absence in the paint was most surprising and glaring. The junior nabbed only six rebounds, three of which were offensive rebounds, and missed all seven of her shot attempts the entire game. She ended the game with zero points.

The Bears also suffered early on from poor defensive rotations. Slow and missed switches meant easier passing lanes for the Bulldogs. Cal coach Lindsay Gottlieb’s decision to run her defenders under screens also meant more open shooting chances for Georgia guards.

Thanks to the stringent Georgia zone defense, the Bears found themselves down 26-21 at halftime. Considering the Bears only shot 24.2 percent compared to the Bulldogs’ 42 percent, they were lucky to only be down by five.

The second half began no better for the Bears. With Brittany Boyd out, Cal had even fewer options for attacking the zone. At the 15:16 mark, Georgia held a solid 36-29 lead.

But the Bears bounced back soon after. Layshia Clarendon scored a 3-point shot to spur a 9-1 run. The Bears matched their offensive explosion with defensive intensity, holding the Bulldogs scoreless for five minutes. Cal trailed, 37-36, with 11:59 remaining.

The game teetered in Georgia’s direction as the Bulldogs continued to stifle Cal’s inside game. Outrebounded by the Bears the entire game, the Bulldogs maximized their shots from the field and from the free throw line. They shot 36 percent from the field and 67 percent from the charity stripe.

Nevertheless, the Bears found their identity once again as they entered the final eight minutes. The Bears initiated a 13-1 run to tie the game as the final minute approached, but Georgia’s Anne Armstrong grabbed a tip and made a layup to equalize the game, 52-52.

Clarendon’s quick 3-point shot in the final seconds rimmed out to force overtime.

The tone was entirely different in overtime. Though the Bulldogs struck first with a 3-pointer, Cal continued its defensive suffocation and kept Georgia scoreless until the 1:03 mark.

As Reshanda Gray split a pair of free throws, another 3-point shot by Armstrong in the final 10 seconds made it a one-possession game. After Clarendon made only one of two free throws, Georgia, who was without timeouts, needed a 3-point shot to tie the game.

A last-second hurl from afar flew wide over the backboard, and the bench players flooded the court to commence the celebration.

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Joshua Bessex at The Daily of Univ. of Washington/Courtesy

On Saturday night, the Bay prevailed over the Bayou at Spokane, Wash.

The No. 2 seed Bears defeated No. 6 seed LSU (22-12), 73-63, to seal a trip to its first ever Elite Eight appearance in program history. The victory also set a program record for most wins in a single season with 31.

Guard Layshia Clarendon and forward Gennifer Brandon once again led the Bears, scoring 19 and 17 points respectively and proving crucial in maintaining a close first half with the Tigers and running away with the lead in the second half. Guard Brittany Boyd trailed behind with 14 points.

Clarendon, who shot 5-for-13 and recorded six steals, was initially silent in the first half — the All-Pac-12 guard scored only two points in the first half but exploded for 17 in the second.

Cal initially leaned on Brandon to produce the points early in the game. The junior notched the first four points for the Bears inside the post. On the night, she added another double-double to her resume with 17 points and 13 rebounds.

While Cal (31-3) took the early 9-4 lead, the Tigers rebounded quickly. Following a timeout, LSU heightened its defensive pressure and allowed only one Cal point for another three and a half minutes. For the remainder of the first half, the Tigers suffocated the Bears’ offense.

Cal was stuffed out by forwards Shanece McKinney and Theresa Plaisance who used their height advantage to take the Bears out of range.  The LSU bigs controlled the offensive and defensive glass. By reducing Cal’s second-chance scoring opportunities, the Tigers kept the game close.

McKinney led the effort as a blocking machine, swatting away five Bears’ shots in the first half. In one minute-long span, McKinney swatted away shots from Brandon and Talia Caldwell.

Caldwell especially struggled in this game. The senior, who played limited minutes in the last game against University of South Florida due to her poor free throw form, received few opportunities again on Saturday. She only attempted four shots, making one, and only nabbed six rebounds in the entire game.

LSU guard Adrienne Webb was also a critical factor. The senior guard, who logged six points off 3-for-6 shooting, hounded Clarendon and silenced the guard who has been averaging 16 points per game this season in the first half.

After trading baskets, LSU took advantage of a turnover from Bears guard Layshia Clarendon taking its a 18-16 lead, its first of the game, on a fastbreak play.

Nevertheless, the Bears resiliently held on. They never got behind by more than two, and after Brandon made two free throws, the team went into halftime tied at 26.

The second half proved a more fruitful start for Cal. The Bears displayed much more energy than the Tigers and quickly rattled off an 8-2 start. Only a few minutes in, the Bears seized a 34-28 lead.

While LSU matched the effort to make it 36-35 with 13:54 remaining, Clarendon took matters into her own hands. In the first eight minutes into the second half, she notched eight points. She utilized screens more effectively and found space to take her signature stop-and-pop jumpers.

With the Tigers slowing down, Cal took advantage on both ends of the court. The Bears forced 16 turnovers and shut down LSU to two points over a five-minute stretch, ballooning its lead to 54-45.

As the Bears continued pulling away, the Tigers employed the “hack-a-Shaq” strategy that fouled the Bears to one of its greatest weaknesses — the free throw line. The Bears were much better from the charity stripe than against USF last week  — hitting 65.6 percent in the second half.

With the fourth-seeded Georgia upsetting the top seed Stanford earlier on Saturday, Cal faces the Bulldogs instead of the expected Pac-12 rivals on  Monday night. The Bulldogs impressively upset the Cardinal with stellar defense down the stretch late in the game, shutting down star guard Amber Orrange and forward Chiney Ogwumike.

Vincent Tzeng covers women’s basketball. Contact him at vtzeng@dailycal.org.

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Survive and advance. That’s exactly what the Cal women’s basketball team did in Monday night’s game in Lubbock, Tex. — survive.

With 58 seconds left in their second round matchup against the 10-seed South Florida, the second-seeded Bears held a comfortable 68-58 lead. But a series of mental errors by Cal and the ensuing 3-pointers of desperation allowed the Bulls to finish the game on an 12-2 run and send the game into overtime.

Although it took the extra five minutes, the Bears prevailed, 82-78. It wasn’t pretty, but the Bears (30-3) are moving onto the sweet 16 for the second time in program history since the 2008-2009 season.

Cal came out strong behind smart plays from guard Brittany Boyd. At the 14:17 mark, Boyd, who recorded 21 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists in Saturday’s game against Fresno State, shot through her opponents’ passing lane and stole the ball from them, finishing seconds later with an easy layup.

The Cal lead had already grown to seven at 15-8 behind a balanced scoring attack, with every starter scoring by 5 minutes into the contest.

South Florida guard Inga Orekhova was singlehandedly keeping the Bulls (22-11) close. The junior had 11 points in the first 11 minutes, going 3-for-6 from behind the 3-point arc. With 7:14 left in the half, the Bears and Bulls were deadlocked at 22.

Guard Layshia Clarendon gave the Bears’ momentum going into the half with an impressive 3-point play as time expired. In an isolation play, Clarendon dribbled left, pulled up for a jumper in the lane which she hit and earned a foul.

Cal was up 37-32 at the break, behind Clarendon’s 17 points on 7-for-10 from the field. She finished with a team-high 27 points.

The second half began with both teams running the floor. In transition, Boyd sidestepped an opponent to finish gracefully at the rim at the 16:59 mark. Seconds later, Clarendon found a forward Gennifer Brandon streaking down the court for another easy layup.

The momentum was rapidly shifting in the Bears’ favor as they led 44-37, but a well-timed South Florida timeout settled things down.

For the next few minutes, Cal did their best to maintain the fast-paced tempo, but the squad simply couldn’t convert their layups.

Cal could not seal the deal, paving the way for the Bulls’ comeback. With 1.7 seconds left, USF had pulled within three at 70-67 and had one more inbound play. Clarendon fouled Orekhova in the act of shooting a three. Orekhova made the first two, and Cal coach Lindsay Gottlieb called a timeout to ice her from equalizing the game.

It didn’t matter.

Orekhova swished the last free throw through, sending the game into overtime. In a shocking turn of events, the Bears were playing for their survival in the NCAA Tournament after holding onto a comfortable lead just seconds earlier.

Despite the setback, Cal went to business as soon as overtime started. The Bears jumped to an early 76-73 in the extra session, and a critical layup in traffic by forward Reshanda Gray pushed the lead to five. The Bulls stayed within striking distance, making the majority of their points from the free throw line.

With 52.2 seconds left and down three, South Florida intentionally fouled Afure Jemerigbe. The junior guard nailed both to push the lead back to five at 80-75.

Following a quick South Florida layup with 29 seconds left, Clarendon got trapped in the corner off the inbound and lost the ball to a tie up with the possession arrow in favor of the Bulls.

Errors committed by Cal had left the door wide open for the Bulls, but they failed to take advantage. The Bulls got tied up on their inbounds, giving the ball right back to the Bears.

Jemerigbe stepped to the line, made one free throw, and that was the game.

Austin Crochetiere covers women’s basketball. Contact him at acrochetiere@dailycal.org.

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