With 3:54 remaining in the first Battle of the Bay matchup, Stanford women’s basketball led the Cal Golden Bears 54-45, capitalizing on a 15-0 run. In that span, it wasn’t only the Cardinal offense that contributed to the run but also a staunch defensive performance that held Cal to 0-of-11 in shooting in an eight-minute span and forced three turnovers.

While senior point guard Amber Orrange contributed 15 of her 19 points in the second half and sophomore guard Lili Thompson contributed 18 points, it was freshman guard Brittany McPhee who provided a boost to the Cardinal morale coming off of the bench early on, earned her significant playing time in the No. 18 Card’s (20-7, 12-3 Pac-12) 59-47 win over Cal (20-7, 11-4). McPhee scored 9 points in the game and pulled down 6 rebounds.

At halftime, the Cardinal trailed the Bears 32-23 and had 9 turnovers in just 20 minutes of play. Thompson and McPhee accounted for 15 of the Card’s 23 first-half points. At the end of the half, Stanford battled back from a five-minute drought in scoring to pull within single digits.

Stanford came out in the second half firing on all cylinders and capitalizing off of sloppiness from the other side to ultimately outscore Cal 36-15 in the second half.

In the final 13 minutes of the game, Cal failed to score a single field goal, coming up with just 3 points off of four free throw attempts. Their final basket of the game came from point guard Brittany Boyd with 12:59 to play. The senior was held to just 6 points in the Bears loss, despite averaging 13.5 on the season, a testament to and indicative of the Card’s tight defense in the win. Senior forward Reshanda Gray, Cal’s leading scorer with 18.1 points per game, only managed 9 points.

Stanford took its first lead of the game since 17-15 at 7:50 in the first half off of a pair of Thompson free throws, putting the Cardinal back up by two. The free throws contributed to an 18-2 run that put Stanford ahead for good.

The Cardinal will next play host to the Golden Bears at Maples on Sunday at 1 p.m. in the second installment of the Battle of the Bay and on Stanford’s Senior Night.

Contact Ashley Westhem at awesthem ‘at’ stanford.edu.