Anigwe fouls out, Arizona State pulls away

Kristine Anigwe was supposed to address the crowd pregame, but she got stage fright and sprinted away from midcourt as teammate K.C. Waters came to rescue the microphone.

Without the Pac-12’s second-leading scorer, Cal had one field goal after Anigwe departed.

Anigwe scored a career-low eight points on 3-of-8 shooting, but she did have 15 rebounds and three blocked shots.

Arizona State leads the conference in scoring defense and three-point defense, and the Sun Devils showed why against Cal.

After opening the game 1-of-8 from the floor with two turnovers, Arizona State righted itself to go on a 7-2 run and take a 9-8 lead with 43 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

Cal closed the frame on a 6-0 burst, including a Cowling layup, to go into the break with a 24-20 lead.

The Bears held the Sun Devils without a field goal for a seven-minute stretch spanning the second and third quarters, and Cal extended its lead to 27-21 on a Thomas three-pointer with 9:06 left in the third.