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From left, Cal’s Precious Martin, Brittany Nelson and CeCe Dixon cheer as the Vulcans open a double-digit lead against Gannon during the second half of a PSAC semifinal Tuesday night at Hamer Hall.
Katie Roupe / Observer-Reporter
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Cal’s Miki Glenn scores two of her 18 points as Gannon’s Jennie Thies defends in the first half.
Katie Roupe / Observer-Reporter
CALIFORNIA – The Gannon Jinx – if there really was such a thing – is over.
For all the good things the California University women’s basketball team has done in recent seasons, beating Gannon was not one of them. The Vulcans lost seven in a row against the Golden Knights – until Tuesday night.
And all it took to exorcise the streak was a robotics event and one of the best 20-minute stretches in the career of California senior Irina Kukolj.
Because of a robotics competition scheduled for Cal’s Convocation Center, the Vulcans’ PSAC tournament quarterfinal game against Gannon was moved to Hamer Hall. The new venue – actually, the former home of the Vulcans – provided a nice and rare home-court advantage. And the crowd, which was louder and closer to the court than they would have been at the spacious Convocation Center, had plenty to cheer about in the second half.
Kukolj and sophom*ore point guard Miki Glenn each scored 16 of their 18 points in the second half as California stormed back to finally defeat Gannon, 66-53.
The Golden Knights (21-7) swept Cal in the regular season, winning in Erie only a few days after the death of Cal player Shanice Clark and again late in the regular season at the Convocation Center.
“I’m excited for the kids. We worked so hard to get this. We’ve been this close against them,” Cal coach Jess Strom said. “The games against them have been so close. The last one was an overtime game. I’m happy that we’ve finally overcome that.”
The win sends California (24-4) to the conference semifinals Saturday night at East Division champion Bloomsburg (24-3) at 3:30 p.m. The Huskies were a 10-point winner over Kutztown in the quarterfinals.
Cal was late getting started against Gannon, falling behind 10-2. The Vulcans managed to battle back to within 22-20 at halftime, then turned up their defensive pressure and offensive pace in the second half.
Steals by Kaitlynn Fratz and Glenn, each leading directly to baskets, triggered a 7-0 Cal run to open the second half.
“We got steal, steal and that got us going,” Strom admitted.
Then it was all Kukolj for much of the second half. She scored in a variety of ways as Cal continued to build its lead. A forward from Harrisonburg, Va., Kukolj scored off an offensive rebound, made two free throws, drilled a three-pointer from the right wing and then made a nifty spin move in the lane for a scoop layup that would have made Michael Jordan proud. The latter basket gave Cal a 38-27 lead.
“She makes layups like that every day,” Strom said. “If you haven’t seen here play, then you’re going to say that was a circus shot. But she does that every day in practice.”
Strom said Kukolj’s strong second half, which followed a first half in which the veteran sat for 13 minutes because of two early fouls, was simply inspired play. Kukolj is one of the few remaining players from Cal’s team that advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division II tournament in 2013.
“She remembers what that was like, so this mattered a little more to her,” Strom said. “She’s feeling that senior vibe.”
On this night, there were plenty of good vibrations from a loud crowd, but Gannon is an experienced team and the Golden Knights were playing to enhance their chances of getting into next week’s NCAA tournament. Gannon put together one final charge. Five straight points from Jennie Thies and a three-pointer from the corner by McKenna Shives were part of a 12-5 run that pulled Gannon to within 48-45 with four minutes left.
But Cal’s defensive pressure in the second half quickened the pace of the game and prevented Gannon from getting the ball into the low post with regularity to all-conference forward Nettie Blake. In the slow-paced first half, Blake scored eight early points, but she finished with just 13.
Cal, after shooting only 28 percent in the first half, scored 46 second-half points.
“Cal makes you play fast,” Gannon coach Jim Brunelli said. “In our last two games against them, we had the ability to get the ball inside. When we did tonight, we scored or got fouled. But we missed a lot of those opportunities. They were more aggressive than us. They got to the rebounds and loose balls.”
Cal protected its lead down the stretch by getting to the free-throw line. The Vulcans made 19 of 25 foul shots in the second half. They also scored on a drive for a basket by Kukolj that made the score 52-45 with 2:04 left.
And Kukolj finished off the Golden Knights with a hustle play a minute later. She rebounded her own missed free throw and put the ball back up for a basket that gave the Vulcans a 59-47 advantage.
“That was definitely one of the better 20 minutes of basketball I’ve had,” Kukolj admitted. “I had some momentum and my confidence was high. … We picked up the pressure on defense in the second half and got some baskets in transition.”
Fratz, a guard who was the smallest player on the court, finished with 17 points and a game-high eight rebounds.
