BERKELEY, Calif. – The season came to an end for Santa Clara women's basketball with a 72-68 defeat at Cal in the first round of the WBIT on Thursday night. The Broncos (24-10) rallied from a halftime deficit to lead into the fourth before the Bears (20-14) went on a run in the final minutes to come away victorious.

HOW IT HAPPENED: 

• Santa Clara started the game 4-of-8 from the field while Cal started 3-of-11 and the Broncos took advantage with an 11-7 lead. From there, Santa Clara went cold, hitting just one of its final 10 shots from the floor, including a three-minute scoring drought to close out the period, and the Bears came back to take a 16-13 lead at the end of the first quarter.
• Santa Clara scored six of the first eight points of the second quarter to take a one-point lead, but Cal followed with an 8-0 run. Delainey Miller followed with back-to-back shots, but the Bears answered again with two 3-pointers in a row. Cal would get the lead to as high as 10 and the Broncos went into the half down 36-29.
• Things turned around in the third quarter as Santa Clara doubled up Cal 26-13. The comeback began with a 6-0 run that made it just a three-point deficit. After a triple for the Bears, another six in a row tied the score at 45-all. The Bears scored four around an Ava Schmidt 3-pointer before the Broncos finished the quarter on a 7-0 run, highlighted by and and-one by Ashley Hawkins, to give Santa Clara a 55-49 lead heading to the fourth. The Broncos were 9-of-16 shooting in the quarter and held Cal to 5-of-19, including 1-of-8 from deep.
• The fourth saw Cal make a comeback with a big quarter. A 13-2 run gave Cal the lead at 63-62. Schmidt put her team back own top with a jumper but the Bears followed with the next five to take the lead for good. After a pair of free throws by Hawkins and a stop on defense, the Broncos had a fast break to tie the game but an errant pass led to a turnover. After four free throws by Cal, Schmidt drilled a deep 3-pointer with two seconds remaining to make it 70-68. The Broncos fouled quickly to keep hope alive, but Cal made both free throws to ice it.

NOTABLE:

• Santa Clara shot 39.4-percent (26-for-66) from the field but was 4-of-21 from beyond the arc.
• Schmidt and Hawkins led the offense with 18 points each. Miller added 14 with six rebounds and four assists and Tyler Gildersleeve-Stiles had eight rebounds to go with seven points.
• Cal shot 34.7-percent (26-for-75) for the game and was just 5-of-29 from downtown.
• Lulu Twiddle lead all-scorers with 27 on 7-of-22 from the field and 11-of-11 from the free throw line while also adding 11 rebounds for the double-double Sakima Walker was the only other Bear in double-figures with 19 points on 8-of-13 shooting.
• Santa Clara finishes the season with program records for points in a season (2,728), points per game (80.2), field goals (953), field goal attempts (2,388), 3-pointers (319), 3-point attempts (1,030), rebounds (1,442), and blocks (183).
• Hawkins finished the season with 209 assists on the year, good for second in a single-season in program history.
• Schmidt finishes her season tied for second on the single-season blocks list with 73.