Last November, I was renting a room in the Adams Point neighborhood in Oakland, walking distance from the 19th St. BART station. A 10-minute BART ride puts one in Downtown Berkeley, walking distance from Haas Pavilion. I needed Pacific to visit Cal *last* season.
During the WNBA season, the Golden Bears visited Chase Center one night for a Valkyries game. Coach Smith was working the crowd waiting in line, and I got her attention.
Coach Smith kinda knows me, from Stanford and from Cal, but I don’t think she’s ever seen me in the same context twice. Sometimes I’ve been in her press room, sometimes I was wearing the visiting team’s colors. So when she said at Chase in the cordial public relations kind of way: “See you at Haas later?”, I was confident I could get away with lying, and said yes.
Pacific has never beaten Cal at Cal. Pacific coach Davis played on the men’s practice team with the Cal women in the mid-’90s. Those were two great incentives for the Tigers Tuesday, but they didn’t make enough shots late in the fourth quarter.
The Tigers went damn near 10 minutes in the first half making no shots. We often describe basketball as a game of runs, but this one was stood out. With the score 5-5 in the first, Pacific went 8-0, Cal answered 11-1. Cal went 8-0 in the second, Pacific answered 10-0. Tied at halftime.
Pacific started the third 11-2, Cal answered 15-5. Cal started the fourth 10-3, and held on. In other words, Cal won 4 runs to 3.
My best basketball friend in New York is fond of Seton Hall. With some sunlight to help me drive across the Altamont Pass Saturday, I ought to go to Seton Hall at Pacific.