Cal Basketball: Women Improve to 2-0 Behind Anigwe’s Monster Start

Behind senior Kristine Anigwe’s huge start, the women’s Cal basketball team is 2-0 and looking to improve on their number 24 ranking.

After opening the season ranked 24th in the AP poll, the women on Cal’s basketball team have backed up their ranking in the season’s first week. They started the season with a victory against the Houston Cougars on Wednesday, then followed it up with a road win against the Penn State Nittany Lions on Sunday. In both contests, they were led by senior Kristine Anigwe.

Anigwe, a 6’4” center from Phoenix has become one of the nation’s best players, and the start to her 2018-2019 season has proven that. In the season opener, she piled up the statistics while battling Houston. Across 30 minutes, she scored 37 points while hitting on 13 of her 20 shot attempts. She was perfect on all 11 free throw attempts, and added 13 rebounds.

Anigwe’s 11th career 30-point game was pivotal in Cal’s one-point win, especially because of a torrid hot streak she went on in the third quarter. She scored 21 of her points in a six-minute stretch of that third quarter, helping Cal rally from a four-point deficit to take a nine-point lead.

More from Golden Gate Sports

• Raiders: Rookie stock report following Week 3 performance
• 49ers sign new long snapper amidst a flurry of roster moves
• Oakland Athletics win Game 2 of Wild Card round with late-inning drama
• 49ers: George Kittle and Deebo Samuel cleared to return to practice
• 49ers expected to place DE Dee Ford on injured reserve

Facing Penn State on Sunday, Anigwe had another big day. She scored 24 points and pulled down 22 rebounds, including eight offensive boards. It was her 43rd career double-double, and her second career game with 20 rebounds, falling three shy of her career-high of 25 boards.

Anigwe is already the most decorated player on Cal’s roster, and she playing like she wants to add more hardware to the collection. She’s been named a Women’s Basketball Coaches Association All-American honorable mention in each of her first three seasons. She’s been an All-Pac-12 first-teamer in all three seasons.

She won the USBWA’s National Freshman of the Year in 2016, and was also the Pac-12’s Freshman of the Year that year. Anigwe was named to the Pac-12 All-Defensive Team in 2017, and was an honorable mention for the team in her two other seasons.

This year, Anigwe is on the preseason watch list for the John R. Wooden Award, given annually to the nation’s most outstanding college basketball player. She is also on the watch list for the Lisa Leslie Award, given to the nation’s best center.