Cal Survives Saint Mary’s 74-69

 
BERKELEY – The California women’s basketball team withstood a furious fourth-quarter rally by Saint Mary’s (3-5) to earn a 74-69 win at Haas Pavilion Saturday afternoon and improve to 7-1 on the season. Cal had a 15-point lead with 4:01 remaining in the fourth quarter, but the Gaels went on a 11-1 run the rest of the way to nearly complete the comeback.
 
For the third time this season, the Bears had four players score in double figures, led by Ila Lane who had 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting to go along with seven rebounds. Leilani McIntosh, Marta Suárez and Lulu-Laditan Twidale scored 13 points each. Kemery Martín had a career-high seven assists while McIntosh matched her season high with eight assists. For the third straight game, Twidale had a multiple 3-point effort with three from beyond the arc. As a team, Cal had season highs of 21 assists and 44 points in the paint.
 
“We talked to Ila and Michelle [Onyiah] about having that low block presence and how much it means for us not just now but moving forward,” Cal head coach Charmin Smith said. “I thought they both responded. Ila was phenomenal today. We needed to feed the posts and they really came through for us when we needed them. Jeff [Cammon] does a really good job with his defensive…