Next: A double dose of Bears

The Cardinal passes the midpoint of the regular season this week with a pair of games against Cal:

• at home in Maples on Thursday evening at 8:00
• across the bay in Haas on Sunday afternoon at 1:00

The home game will be televised by Pac-12 Networks and streamed online by Pac-12 Networks, with live stats here. The game in Berkeley will be televised by ESPN2, with live stats here. Both will be broadcast by KZSU.

Note that there won't be a booster bus to the game in Berkeley because not enough Cardinal fans expressed an interest. However, parking near Haas should be easy on a Sunday afternoon.

Amber put on a show at Cal last year

Which Bears will show up against the Cardinal this week? The tough defenders who have won 14 games? Or the careless, uncontrolled ones who defeat themselves?

It's been hard to predict, but I expect the former — the Bears traditionally bring their best game against the Cardinal. And I'm sure they're eager to repeat last season's upset at Maples.

The Bears are generally very strong on defense. They rank third in the Pac-12 in scoring defense, allowing their opponents an average of 63.6 points per game. They're particularly good on 3-point defense, where they rank second, allowing their opponents to make only 27.5% of their 3-point shots. Three of their players rank among the top 20 in rebounding — junior forward Reshanda Gray, freshman forward Courtney Range and junior guard Brittany Boyd.

As a team, the Bears aren't outstanding scorers. They rank eighth in the Pac-12 with 69.1 points per game, but three of their players are among the top 30 scorers — Reshanda Grey, Brittany Boyd and senior guard Afure Jemerigbe.

The Bears aren't usually a threat at the perimeter. They rank last in the Pac-12 in 3-pointers per game and in 3-point percentage. Only three of their players shoot much from beyond the arc — Jemerigbe, freshman guard Hin Ben Abdelkader and senior guard Mikayla Lyles. They each make just over or not quite one per game. However, there are occasional standout performances — Ben Abdelkader hit six of nine against Cal State Bakersfield and Lyles hit four of four against Oregon. Also, Lyles hit four of six last season in the Bears' victory at Maples.

In conference play, the Bears have defeated the Oregon schools, the Rocky Mountain schools, Arizona and UCLA. They've lost to Arizona State and USC.

The Bears have been ranked all season, as high as #15/15, currently #21/#19.

In recent games, the Cal starters have been:

• #15, 5'9" junior guard Brittany Boyd dishes out almost half of the Bears' assists ( 5.63 per game), which is the most in the Pac-12. But she turns the ball over a lot too, so her assist/turnover ratio is a poor 1.49. She's a very adept ball thief, averaging 3.2 per game, which ranks #5 in the nation. She's the Bears' second-best scorer with 14.0 points per game and she grabs 6.4 rebounds per game. She has the dubious distinction of having committed the most fouls (3.42 per game). She's ended with four fouls in six games and fouled out three times.


• #21, 6'3" junior forward Reshanda Gray is twice as productive as last season and is now the Bears' leading scorer (17.3 points per game) and rebounder (7.9 per game). She's had six double-doubles. She has committed just one less foul than Boyd, has ended with four fouls ten times and fouled out twice.


• #2, 6'0" senior guard Afure Jemerigbe is the Bears' third-best scorer with 10.7 points per game. She's had double-digit scores in eleven games. She averages 0.9 3-pointers, 1.9 assists and 4.4 rebounds per game.


• #40, 6'2" junior forward Justine Hartman averages 3.9 points and 3.0 rebounds per game.


• #10, 5'10" freshman guard Mercedes Jefflo averages 5.0 points, 1.6 assists and 2.9 rebounds per game.

These four players get significant minutes off the bench:

• #24, 6'3" freshman forward Courtney Range is the Bears' second-best rebounder with 7.6 per game. She's had double-digit rebounds six times and been the Bears' top rebounder in half of their games. She averages 6.3 points per game and has blocked the most shots (0.8 per game)


• #25, 6'2" redshirt senior forward Gennifer Brandon left the team for personal reasons early in the season, but returned in time for conference play. She's averaged 6.9 points and 6.6 rebounds per game since her return.


• #12, 5'7" freshman guard Hin Ben Abdelkader played for Belgium in the FIBA U17 World Championship and the FIBA U16 European Championship. She averages 5.3 points, 1.1 3-pointers, 1.1 assists and 1.6 rebounds per game


• #30, 5'8" senior guard Mikayla Lyles averages 3.7 points, 0.9 3-pointers, 1.1 assists and 2.7 rebounds per game.

Last off the bench are redshirt junior forward Kyra Dunn, redshirt junior guard Brittany Shine, and freshman forward KC Waters. Senior guard Avigiel Cohen has not played since the end of the non-conference season.

Cal's win-loss record 14-5 overall, 6-2 conference) places it fourth in the Pac-12, its RPI (22) places it fourth, and its strength of schedule rank (32) places it fifth.

Here are Cal's statistics and roster.