No. 14 California Travels To Rainbow Wahine Classic

No. 14/14 California travels to Honolulu this weekend to participate in the Bank of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine Classic hosted by the University of Hawaii. The Bears will take on the Rainbow Wahine Friday before facing Missouri Sunday.

Tip-off between Cal and Hawaii is scheduled for 9 p.m. (PT) at the Stan Sherriff Center on Friday night. The Bears will tip-off against Missouri at 6:30 p.m. (PT) Sunday.

Friday’s game will be streamed live on BigWest.tv, and stats will be available for both games.

A CALIFORNIA WIN WOULD
*Give Cal its second straight over Hawaii and make Lindsay Gottlieb 2-0 in Honolulu as the head coach at Cal
*Improve the Golden Bears to 3-0 for the second time in the last four years
*Move the Golden Bears to 8-5 in regular season non-conference away games under Gottlieb

SCOUTING HAWAII
Hawaii is off to the first 2-0 start in program history in head coach Laura Beeman’s second season in charge. The Rainbow Wahine were picked to finish second in the Big West preseason poll and are led by senior guard and preseason All-Big West selection Shawna-Lei Kuehu. Hawaii’s other season guard, Morgan Mason, was named the Big West Player of the Week after leading the ‘Bows to wins on the road at Colorado State and Denver while averaging 18.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game.

CAL-HAWAII SERIES HISTORY
California leads the all-time series, 5-4, and won the last meeting between the two teams in Lindsay Gottlieb’s first season - a 69-54 victory in Honolulu. Overall, the Bears are 3-4 all-time in Honolulu and had lost four consecutive before Gottlieb ended the Rainbow Wahine streak with the win in the 2011-12 season..

GAME RECAP
Every Golden Bear scored in the 2014-15 home opening 76-54 win over Nevada. Reshanda Gray led the Bears with 17 points and 8 rebounds, and the duo of Brittany Boyd and Mikayla Cowling both scored 13 points each. Freshman Gabby Green dished eight assists in the game.

KEEPING AHEAD
Through two wins and 80 minutes, California has not yet trailed in a game this season. In both games against Pacific and Nevada, the Bears rushed out to a quick two-possession lead (6-0 at Pacific; 5-0 vs Hawaii) and never looked back. On the other end of the spectrum, the Golden Bears have held leads over 20 points in each game, with their largest lead hitting 22 points at Pacific and 28 points against Nevada.

THE GOLDEN DISH
The Bears have opened the season with exactly 21 assists in both wins against Pacific and Nevada. Amazingly, in both games Cal registered 21 assists on 30 made field goals. Put into perspective, only twice last season did California dish at least 20 assists in game - first in the 70-51 win against Bakersfield and the second in the 101-98 overtime win against Oregon..

BOYD RISES IN PAC-12 RECORD BOOKS
California’s Brittany Boyd is steadily rising up the Pac-12 all-time record book and last week cracked the top 10 list for career steals. With 275 career thefts, Boyd is now 10th all-time and sits 1 shy of matching Margo Evashevski (Oregon State) for 9th all-time on the list. Boyd is also closing in on the top 10 list for career assists with 521 currently in her career - 56 shy of matching Nicole Powell and Leilani Estavan for 10th all-time..